The Six Saints

The Six Saints, c. 1535. Niccolo Boldrini (Italian, c. 1500–after 1566), after Titian (Italian, c. 1488–1576). Woodcut. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland, 1965.307

Created in 1535 during the Renaissance period, this work belongs firmly within the religion & mythology tradition. Niccolo Boldrini worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.

Working in woodcut at Unknown, Niccolo Boldrini constructs depth through value contrast rather than outline, letting figures emerge from darkness the way they would under candlelight or through a shuttered window.

Look closely and the painting opens up. Objects you might pass over — a folded letter, a half-drawn curtain, the angle of a glance — were placed to be read. What looks like straightforward narrative is layered with typology: episodes chosen and staged to rhyme with older stories the original audience already knew.

Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland now holds the work, where conservators and historians continue to revisit its condition and attribution. Each generation of scholarship adds a layer to how Niccolo Boldrini's output from this period is understood.

“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”