Charles Mellin

Bears old inventory numbers on the backing: 31 and 40 (crossed out);
E. Calando (L.837);
E. Calando fils, (bears his inventory number: 2113)

Laid down on the mount, four corners cut. Within pen and ink framing lines, drawing generally quite fresh and good condition.
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This is a study for one of the compartments of Mellin's decorations in the vault of the choir of the church in the monastery of Montecassino.  That famous Benedictine abbey, tragically destroyed by Allied bombing in 1943/4, had been rebuilt several times since its foundation.  In 1503 it passed into the possession of the Kingdom of Naples, and when extensive renovations were undertaken in the late 16th and 17th Centuries, Neapolitan artists were employed as well as Roman ones. 

The cupola was to have been decorated with mosaics designed by Cavaliere d'Arpino but in the end, after rejecting Domenichino and Lanfranco as too expensive, the monks hired Belisario Corenzio to paint it.  In 1677 Lanfranco painted the nave, and in 1634 the monks drew up a contract with Mellin, who may have been recommended to them by Cavaliere d'Arpino, for the decoration of the vault of the choir.  The contract was redrawn in 1635, with more favourable terms for Mellin, and the work was apparently done in 1636.  The iconographical program was unusual and included scenes from the life of St Benedict but with a strong emphasis on Old and New Testament events which can be seen as precedents for tenets of the Benedictine rule. 

Unfortunately there is little surviving visual record of the decoration of the choir vault but there is a large group of Mellin's drawings for the paintings which give a good idea of the compositions.  These are illustrated and discussed with great clarity in Philippe Malgouyres' exhibition catalogue devoted to Charles Mellin.¹  Only one is related to this composition,² but as the present drawing is larger and more finished, as well as being partially squared, it was probably a finished modello for the fresco.  As such it is an important contribution to the understanding of this major commission. 

The subject is an episode from the life of St. Benedict as recorded by St. Gregory the Great.  St Benedict, looking out a window of the monastery, had a vision of the world concentrated in a ray of light, and above it, the soul of St. Germanus of Capua (who died circa 540 and was a great friend of St. Benedict) carried to heaven by angels.³

1.  Philippe Malgouyres, Charles Mellin, exhibition catalogue, Caen, Musée des Beaux-Arts and Nancy, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 2007, pp. 154-167

2.  Rennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Malgouyres cat. no. D.38

3.  Idem., p. 163