Andy Warhol’s Saint Apollonia: Renaissance Source and Collector’s Guide

Andy Warhol’s Saint Apollonia is an arresting late print because it does not begin with a celebrity photograph, a newspaper image or a commercial package. Its source is a small fifteenth-century panel by Piero della Francesca. Warhol takes a devotional image made for an altarpiece and recasts it through colour screenprinting, turning a Renaissance saint into a frontal, electrically coloured presence.

The result feels both old and unmistakably Warhol. Apollonia’s pose, clothing and attribute remain legible, yet the move from tempera and gold to layered printed colour changes the encounter. This is not a simple reproduction of Piero. It is a study in what happens when an image moves across five centuries, from a sacred architectural setting into a modern portfolio and, eventually, a contemporary collection.

For collectors, there is also a precise catalogue question to resolve. Warhol’s 1984 Saint Apollonia portfolio comprises four screenprints, catalogued as Feldman and Schellmann II.330–333. Individual sheets circulate separately as well as in complete sets. The current Dovehouse listings describe signed and numbered examples from the standard edition of 250. Before comparing price or condition, establish exactly which plate is being offered and whether the listing concerns one sheet or all four.

Who was Saint Apollonia, and what image did Warhol use?

The National Gallery of Art in Washington dates Piero della Francesca’s Saint Apollonia to about 1455–1460. The tempera-on-poplar panel measures 38.8 × 28 cm and once formed part of the gilded frame of the Augustinian altarpiece. Apollonia is shown holding a tooth in pincers, the attribute associated with her martyrdom and her later identification as the patron saint of dentistry.

Piero’s painting is quiet and highly controlled. The saint faces forward but looks slightly aside. Her figure is compact, her expression self-contained, and the tooth and pincers are small enough that they must be noticed rather than announced. Warhol understood the power of this frontal arrangement. He did not need to invent a Pop pose because the historical image already had the directness of a portrait.

The change is carried by process and colour. Screenprinting removes the panel’s devotional materiality while preserving the recognisable figure. Flat colour fields sit against the inherited lines and tonal structure. Areas that once described fabric, flesh and gold ground can now read as independent blocks of colour. The image is still Saint Apollonia, but it also becomes an image about reproduction.

This is where the work connects with Warhol’s wider practice. He repeatedly chose images that had already acquired authority through circulation: publicity photographs, press pictures, advertisements and reproductions of famous artworks. Piero’s saint had a different kind of authority, but it too arrived in Warhol’s studio as an existing image. Our guide to why Warhol chose screenprinting explains how transfer, repetition and visible variation became part of his subject.

What is the Saint Apollonia portfolio?

The 1984 portfolio consists of four screenprints in colours on Essex Offset Kid Finish paper. Auction-house catalogue records identify the group as F. & S. II.330–333, published by Dr. Frank Braun in Düsseldorf. The standard edition is 250, with a separate group of artist’s proofs. Complete sets retain the same edition number across all four sheets; individual plates are also encountered on the market.

That distinction is easy to blur online. A page headed simply Saint Apollonia may describe one plate, not the complete portfolio. The two active Dovehouse records are presented as individual signed and numbered prints from the edition of 250. Neither should be assumed to represent all four images. A collector considering a single sheet should ask for its exact Feldman and Schellmann number. A collector considering a set should confirm that all four catalogue numbers are present and that their numbering is consistent.

Dimensions deserve the same care. The Dovehouse catalogue records use 75 × 56 cm and 76 × 56 cm, while a complete set catalogued by Phillips measured 76.1 × 55.9 cm per sheet. Small differences of rounding are common in published descriptions, but the actual sheet should still be measured. The useful test is whether format, catalogue reference, edition number, signature and paper all agree.

Why does the image feel different from Warhol’s celebrity portraits?

Warhol’s portrait language is often discussed through fame. Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Ingrid Bergman arrived with public identities already attached. Saint Apollonia is different. Her identity is carried by an attribute and a long pictorial tradition rather than a modern publicity machine.

Yet the method produces an unexpected connection. Both a saint’s image and a celebrity portrait depend upon recognition, repetition and a set of agreed signs. The halo, the pincers and the frontal pose identify Apollonia just as a familiar face or costume identifies a film star. Warhol does not need to collapse the two categories. By placing a sacred subject into the same reproducible medium he used elsewhere, he lets the comparison emerge.

The print also resists the easy assumption that Warhol always used colour to make a subject louder. Here colour creates distance as much as emphasis. It can flatten the body, interrupt the description of fabric and make the historical source feel less stable. Look closely at where one colour ends and another begins. The quality of a particular sheet is not simply a matter of brightness; it lies in the balance between the transferred image and the colour structure laid over it.

What should a collector verify?

1. The exact plate

Start with the catalogue reference. Saint Apollonia is a four-image portfolio, so the title alone is not sufficiently precise. Ask whether the sheet is F. & S. II.330, 331, 332 or 333. Compare the image with a recognised catalogue record and make sure the description is not borrowing details from another plate or from the complete set.

2. Edition and signature

The standard edition comprises 250. The number should be recorded accurately, as should any proof designation if a proof rather than a standard-edition impression is offered. The Dovehouse records describe signed and numbered works from the edition of 250. Request clear photographs of the signature, numbering and any copyright or publisher marks on the reverse, without assuming that a signature alone establishes authenticity.

3. Paper and dimensions

Recognised catalogue records specify Essex Offset Kid Finish paper. Confirm the support rather than reducing the medium to the generic word “screenprint”. Record the full sheet dimensions, not only the visible area inside a mount. If the work has been framed for some time, a photograph taken out of the frame can reveal whether the margins have been covered, trimmed or altered.

4. Condition across the full sheet

These prints are colour-rich and printed to a large vertical format. Ask for even, high-resolution photographs and raking-light images. Look for handling creases, surface scuffs, abrasions, scratches, paper undulation and local colour change. Examine the edges and corners, then review the reverse for old hinges, tape, labels or staining. A broad statement such as “very good condition” is less useful than a report that locates and describes each issue.

Colour comparisons require restraint. Screens, photography and lighting can make two impressions appear further apart than they are. If colour is central to the decision, request images made under neutral light or arrange a viewing. Compare like with like: the same plate, the same edition type and a similar state of preservation.

5. Individual sheet or complete portfolio

A single sheet can be a coherent acquisition. Each plate was conceived as a finished image, and many collectors choose the colourway they find most convincing. A complete set offers a different experience because variation becomes the subject: the same historical figure is rebalanced four times through colour and contrast.

Neither route is inherently superior. What matters is that the description and valuation reflect what is actually being offered. If a complete set is proposed, check the four catalogue references, consistent numbering, signatures, publisher information and condition sheet by sheet. One compromised print affects the character of the whole group.

Where does Saint Apollonia sit within Warhol’s printmaking?

Saint Apollonia belongs to Warhol’s sustained late engagement with historical art. It demonstrates that appropriation in his work was not confined to supermarket shelves or Hollywood. A Renaissance panel could be treated as another powerful existing image, but its history changed the tone. The result is cooler and more contemplative than many of his publicity-derived portraits.

For collectors familiar with Warhol’s 1980s portfolios, the work opens a useful line of comparison. The Ingrid Bergman prints also transform a recognised female image through colour and serial variation, but their source belongs to cinema rather than devotional painting. Looking at the two groups together clarifies how much Warhol’s method could hold constant while the cultural meaning of the source changed completely.

The current Andy Warhol collection at Dovehouse includes two active Saint Apollonia catalogue records. To compare the exact plate, condition, documentation and framing of the available works, contact the gallery with the listing link. We can provide the current information for the individual impression and discuss whether a single sheet or a complete four-print portfolio better suits the collection.