Madonna and Child with Saints Roch, Sebastian and Francis Xavier
Artist
Domenico Antonio Vaccaro
(Italian, 1678–1745)
Dateabout 1730
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionscanvas: 132.1 x 85.1 cm (52 x 33 1/2 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineSarah C. Garver Fund
Object number1977.129
Label TextVirgin and Child with Saints was painted around 1730 as a modello, or preparatory work, for a large altarpiece in the collegiate church San Vito a Marigliano, located about twelve miles east of Naples.
A prominent member of a well-known family of artists, Vaccaro was a sculptor, architect, goldsmith and painter. He was first trained by his father, Ludovico (1655-1706), who was also a painter, architect and, above all, a sculptor. Later he studied with the Neapolitan painter, Francesco Solimena (1657-1747). Strongly influenced by Solimena's early, baroque style, Vaccaro went on to become one of the main creators of the Rococo style in southern Italy.
For his commission at Marigliano, Vaccaro combines a variety of figures to produce a complex religious image. Beneath a baldachino of drapery, held aloft by two angels, sits the Madonna, who is shown nursing the Christ Child. A white dove, symbol of the Blessed Trinity, hovers over her head. On her right side are three female figures representing the virtues Faith, Hope and Charity. Numerous other figures, including Saints Agnes and Agatha, appear to the right and behind the enthroned Madonna. On the terrestrial level beneath, which includes a church similar to the one at Marigliano, are four male saints identified as, on the right, the Jesuit missionary S. Francis Xavier and, on the left, S. Sebastian, S. Rocco (Roch), and the patron of the church, S. Vito. Often invoked for their power over pestilence, Saints Sebastian and Rocco were both popular figures in Italy where several serious outbreaks of the plague had occurred.
ProvenanceP & D Colnaghi & Co. Ltd., London EnglandOn View
Not on view
1473–1477
