7 The Trinity Appearing to Saint Clement ca. 1734 Oil on canvas 58.5 x 32.5 cm (23 x 12% in.) The Samuel Courtauld Trust at the Courtauld Institute Gallery, Courtauld Institute of Art, London; inv. 39$ PROVENANCE for the Courtauld Institute of Art, John Nepomub); Piovene and Pallucchini Possibly Cheremetiev (Cheremetjew) University of London, 1978. 1968, 100, fig. 101 (as La Trinitd e il collection, Russia; Nicholson, London, martirio di San Giovanni Nepomuceno); 1935-39; John Bass, New York; sold, EXHIBITIONS Levey 1971, 224-2$, no. 8; Seilern I97ib, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, None. 18-19, pi-V; Heine 1974, 148-49, fig. 2; January 25, 1945, lot 3 (as Sketch for an Levey 1980, 211, 249; Braham 1981, 74, fig. 109; Levey 1986, 76; Bradford Altar Painting); sold, Sotheby's, London, BIBLIOGRAPHY and Braham 1989, 25; Gemin and June 24, 1970, lot 34, to Colnaghi, Morassi 1957, 176-77, I77n.6 (as Pedrocco 1993, 324-25, fig. 226; Levey London; sold to Count Antoine Giovanni Nepomuceno e la SS. Trinitd); 1994, 22$; Whistler 199$, 626; Pedrocco Seilern (1901-1978), London, 1970; by Morassi 1962, 19, fig. 128 (as The 2002, 242, fig. 133. bequest to the Home House Trustees Holy Trinity with the Martyrdom of Saint sAINT CLEMENT, GENERALLY ACCEPTED collapsed onto the ground before the boat in as the third pope to follow Saint Peter, was despair, seven men and a spotted hound gaze banished to the Crimea by the emperor Trajan. coolly upon the praying pope. These exotically Clement initiated an immense missionary effort clad figures —with long beards, turbans, and there, resulting in a church-building campaign fur hats — signify the Russian setting rather than and massive conversions at the fringes of the Trajanic Empire, and they mark an early the Roman Empire. To stem this success, Trajan appearance of the theatrical chorus of extras ordered Clement tossed into the sea, bound to Tiepolo often employed, not so much for narra- an anchor. tive purposes but for thoughtful and dramatic 1 Tiepolo presents the saint in the moment contrast to the protagonist's mood. before his martyrdom. An oarsman prepares This painting is probably an early sketch for the boat — an enormous iron anchor ominously a major altarpiece commissioned by Clement protrudes into the sky at left —with the Black Augustus, archbishop elector of Cologne Sea visible in the lower corner. Clad in full (r. 1723—61), for the high altar of Notre-Dame- papal regalia with his miter and crosier on the Kirche, an Augustinian church at Schloss ground before him, Clement has thrown himself Nymphenberg (fig. 7.1). (This altarpiece is also to his knees as he experiences an overwhelming known through its spectacular presentation vision of the Trinity, suspended on an enormous sketch in the National Gallery, London [fig. blue-gray cloud that descends to the crowd below. 7.2] .)2 While no specific documents connected Flanked on the left by two angels gracefully to the Schloss Nymphenberg painting have supporting an enormous cross, God the Father yet emerged, it is known that Clement August presides, leaning forward and spreading his traveled to Venice three times, and he commis- arms in blessing. Christ, by contrast, reclines on sioned work extensively from Venetian painters a globe, gazing tenderly down at the pope, (although no record of contact with Tiepolo while the Holy Spirit, in a naturalistic touch survives). The scalloped top of the Courtauld characteristic of Tiepolo, vigorously flaps its sketch further underscores its connection to the wings to slow its descent. Although a woman has German altarpiece, for this shape reflects that 49