F. Rustici Attr. Oil on Canvas Italy XVII Century - S. Agata in Carcere Visited by S. Pietro
Features
S. Agata in Carcere Visited by S. Pietro
Artist: Francesco Rustici (1585-1626)
Artwork title: S.Agata in carcere visitata da S.Pietro
Age: 17th Century / 1601 - 1700
Subject: Figures of Saints
Artistic technique: Painting
Technical specification: Oil on Canvas
Description : S.Agata in carcere visitata da S.Pietro
Oil on canvas. The theme of the suggestive scene is the central moment in the life of St. Agatha, a young martyr patroness of Catania who, according to legend, converted to Christianity first refused the flattery of the governor Quinziano and then to renounce her faith and sacrifice to the pagan gods; imprisoned, she was subjected to the torture of amputation of the breasts. While she was in prison, a gray-haired old man entered her cell to medicate her, who revealed himself as St. Peter sent directly by God to alleviate the young woman's pains. This episode became a favorite subject of painting for the richness of pathos and the possibility of theatrical interpretation it offered. In particular, in the first half of the seventeenth century, six types of interpretations of the scene have been identified: St. Agatha asleep while St. Peter enters the cell, the woman frightened and surprised by the unexpected, modest sight that refuses the care of the man, who converses with him almost in a theological dispute, absorbed and asleep while allowing himself to be healed and finally in ecstasy receiving the cures by returning to the Most High; finally there is the scene of the saint who is now alone in her cell surrounded by angels. The work presented here proposes the scene of the saint in an ecstatic attitude, comforted by an angel holding a candle while Peter approaches her with a jar of ointment and his right hand raised: the use of candlelight as a source stands out in the composition. of light, internal to the scene itself and that radiates on Agata's faces and breasts, together with the composure of the figures, even in the pathos of the moment, which underlines the ecstatic concentration and the spiritual significance of the episode. This representation is found almost identical in a group of six works, located in different locations, whose attribution has been the subject of academic study and discussion: the most accredited hypothesis was for a long time that of Sergio Benedetti, who attributed them all to Rustichino, stage name of the painter Francesco Rustici. We also discussed a possible Caravaggesque derivation of the work, but the compositional modality with the figures locked in an ecstatic dimension, together with the use of a light source inside the scene, do not seem to be attributable to the powerful dynamism and use of lights outside the scene that distinguish Caravaggio. The critic Luigi Agus, in a detailed study, instead comes to define the six works as replicas, all by different hands, coming rather from a single field, rather than a workshop, but certainly not all attributable to Rustichino, although it would seem the most reliable candidate for the paternity of at least one of them. According to Agus, some pictorial peculiarities refer the original prototype (now lost) to a Nordic artist, Joachim von Sandrart (1606-1688), active in Rome between 1629 and 1635, while the replicas, almost certainly dating back to the 1940s , due to the non-homogeneous qualities (chromatic differences, different details, above all different stylistic settings) would suggest a small group of artists gravitating to Rome in the same fields as the German painter. The replica proposed here comes from a private collection and was auctioned in 1999 and 2002. Restored and relined, it is presented in a period frame.
Product Condition:
Product in good condition, with small signs of wear.
Frame Size (cm):
Height: 95
Width: 120
Depth: 6
Artwork dimensions (cm):
Height: 77
Width: 101