Renowned for his depictions of branded consumer goods and 20th century fame, in the early 1980s Andy Warhol turned his attention away from portraying the celebrities of his contemporary society. Instead, he began to focus on celebrities of history - iconic figures and motifs of the past. In Saint Apollonia, Warhol sources him imagery from a 15th century painting attributed to Piero della Francesca. Originally conceived as an altarpiece, della Francesca’s painting commemorates the ecclesiastical tale of Saint Apollonia, who was captured by the Alexandrians during a siege circa 248 AD. Tortured for her Christian beliefs, her teeth were extracted using the plyers which she is often depicted holding, as seen in both Warhol and della Francesca’s images. Threatened with being burnt at the stake unless she uttered blasphemous words against Christ, Apollonia made the ultimate sacrifice for her religious beliefs and threw herself into the fire. She is today remembered as the patron saint of dentistry, so it is only appropriate that over 1700 years later, this series of prints was published by Dr. Frank Braun, a German dentist and art collector from Düsseldorf.
Attributed to Piero della Francesca, Saint Apollonia, c. 1455/1460.
Image: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.19.Warhol’s choice to lift his subject matter from a Renaissance masterpiece aligns with his 1984 series Details of Renaissance Paintings, which took works by Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci and Paulo Uccello as their subject matter, transforming them for the modern day through using tightly cropped details and flat colors. In doing so, he likens the recognizability of these masterpieces to the prominence of celebrity images in modern society, exploring the idea of the icon across centuries. In Saint Apollonia, Warhol retains more of the source image’s original detail than in his other appropriations of Renaissance paintings. Rather than reducing the image of Apollonia to flat blocks of color, Warhol keeps the cracked effect of the tempera in della Francesca’s work. The image is not cropped drastically either, but simply reproduced as a commodity. By directly appropriating della Francesca’s imagery, Warhol challenges the concept of originality and commercializes the religious icon using his Pop Art aesthetic.
Literature
see Frayda Feldman and Jörg Schellmann 330-333
Artist Biography
Andy Warhol
American • 1928 - 1987
Andy Warhol was the leading exponent of the Pop Art movement in the U.S. in the 1960s. Following an early career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol achieved fame with his revolutionary series of silkscreened prints and paintings of familiar objects, such as Campbell's soup tins, and celebrities, such as Marilyn Monroe. Obsessed with popular culture, celebrity and advertising, Warhol created his slick, seemingly mass-produced images of everyday subject matter from his famed Factory studio in New York City. His use of mechanical methods of reproduction, notably the commercial technique of silk screening, wholly revolutionized art-making.
Working as an artist, but also director and producer, Warhol produced a number of avant-garde films in addition to managing the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground and founding Interview magazine. A central figure in the New York art scene until his untimely death in 1987, Warhol was notably also a mentor to such artists as Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
60
Saint Apollonia (see F. & S. 330-33)
1984
Unique screenprint in colors, on Essex Offset Kid Finish paper, with full margins.
I. 30 3/8 x 22 5/8 in. (77.2 x 57.5 cm)
S. 35 x 23 in. (88.9 x 58.4 cm)
Signed and numbered 'TP 33/80' in pencil (a unique color variant trial proof, the edition was 250 and 35 artist's proofs), published by Dr. Frank Braun, Dusseldorf (with the artist's copyright inkstamp on the reverse), framed.
Estimate
$9,000 - 12,000
Sold for $10,795
Editions & Works on Paper
New York Auction 22 - 24 October 2024
149
This lot is no longer available.
344
This lot is no longer available.
376
This lot is no longer available.
