The Death of St. Peter Martyr

Inscriptions

Inscribed lower left: CR[edo in Dio] [I believe in God]

Provenance

Possibly John Talbot (died 1852), 16th Earl of Shrewsbury, Alton Towers, Staffordshire, by 1835, if the painting is to be identified with the “Death of Peter Martyr” by Pordenone mentioned by Gustav Friedrich Waagen, “Letter XXVIII,” in Works of art and artists in England, vol. 3 (London: J. Murray, 1838), p. 251, recording his visit to Alton Towers in 1835, or the “Peter Martyr” by Titian mentioned by Ebenezer Rhodes, The Derbyshire tourist’s guide and travelling companion… to which is added, the detail of an excursion from Dove-Dale to Ilam Hall, and Alton Towers (London: R. Goombridge, 1837), p. 271 [for the likelihood of ownership by Shrewsbury, see Gilbert 2003]; possibly by descent in the Talbot family, with a member of the family giving it to St. Alban’s Roman Catholic Church, Macclesfield, Cheshire; St. Alban’s Roman Catholic Church, Macclesfield, Cheshire, probably by 1900, but certainly by 1930 [according to letter of July 11, 2001, from John Tomasso to Nicholas Hall, copy in curatorial file]; sold to Tomasso Brothers Fine Art, Leeds, by 1990 [according to letter of June 21, 2000, from Nicholas Hall to Larry Feinberg and e-mail correspondence of February 29, 2016, between Kelli Sohanpaul and Amanda Block; copies in curatorial file]; sold by Hall and Knight, London and New York, on behalf of Tomasso Brothers; to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2001.

Publications

“A selection of 2001 museum acquisitions,” Apollo (December 2001), p. 31 (ill.). Holland Cotter, “Art Review: Paying an Informal Call on the Master,” New York Times (May 18, 2001). Holland Cotter, “Art Guide,” New York Times (May 25, 2001), ill. Mina Gregori, “Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo: The Death of St. Peter Martyr,” in Hall and Knight Ltd. MMI (London; New York: Hall and Knight Ltd., 2001), cover (ill.), pp. 71-77, cat. no. 1. David Masello, “Saint and Sinner” from “100 Top Treasures,” in Art and Antiques (November 2002), p. 70 (ill.). “New Acquisition,” Art Institute of Chicago News and Events (January/February 2002), p. 5 (ill.). Creighton E. Gilbert, “Savoldo’s Death of Peter Martyr” in Venezia, le Marche e la civiltà adriatica: per festeggiare i 90 anni di Pietro Zampetti from Arte Documento 17-19 (2003), pp. 290-293 (ill.). Larry J. Feinberg, “Notable Acquisitions at the Art Institute of Chicago,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 30, 1 (2004), pp. 54-55 (ill.). Vittorio Sgarbi and Mauro Lucco, Natura e maniera tra Tiziano e Caravaggio: le ceneri violette di Giorgione, exh. cat. (Milan: Skira, 2004), pp. 152-3, under cat. no. 29.

Quick Overview

Artist: Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo (Italian, active 1506–1548)
Date: 1530–35
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 115.3 × 141 cm (45 5/16 × 55 1/2 in.); Framed: 144.8 × 170.2 × 16.9 cm (57 × 67 × 6 5/8 in.)
Type: Painting
Classification: oil on canvas
Style: sixteenth century
Place: Italy
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Credit line: Lacy Armour Endowment
Accession no.: 2001.330

More by Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo in museum collections

Christ with Joseph of Arimathea
Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo
c. 1525 · Painting
Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of ArtAT-00009587

Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.