Martino Altomonte (Naples, 1657 – Vienna, 1745), attributed.
Saint Ursula in Glory
Oil on canvas, 135 x 88 cm
The first accounts of the life of Saint Ursula date back to the 9th century, when the relics of numerous young women were found in a crypt near Cologne. These relics were associated with a local legend that told of a British princess named Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins, martyred by the Huns.
According to tradition, Ursula, betrothed to a Hunnic prince, refused the marriage to dedicate herself to religious life. Together with thousands of virgins, she embarked on a ship to Rome to make a pilgrimage and receive baptism. Upon their return, they found Cologne besieged by the Huns. Rather than renounce their faith, the virgins were killed by the barbarians. Ursula, in particular, was pierced by an arrow. And it is precisely the moment before death that is depicted in the background of the painting: Ursula tied to stocks is about to be struck by the arrow already notched by the soldier, in the distance a tangle of bodies testify to the brutal episode.
At the center of the composition, the figure of the saint is elevated into the sky, in a swirl of clouds and divine light. Her clothing is refined and rich: the golden profiles of the garments, the pearls around her neck, the crown, and the ermine-lined cloak underline her royal descent. In her hands, she holds the palm, a symbol of martyrdom, while two angels at her feet hold the arrows, as a reference to her cruel death, the lily, which alludes to her purity and virginity, and the laurel wreath, a symbol of victory and triumph.
The composition of the painting, especially in the treatment of the saint's face with her eyes turned upwards in a profound divine ecstasy, allows us to connect the present painting to the production of Martino Altomonte (Naples, 1657 – Vienna, 1745). To support the attribution, we cite some of the master's works, such as the canvas of the Altar of San Bernardo in the Abbey of Lilienfeld; in it, the strong chiaroscuro contrasts of the face and the general warm tone of the composition are all recalled in our painting. The same careful use of shadows, especially in the description of the faces, can also be found in other paintings such as the Resurrection of the Widow's Son of Naim in the Church of San Carlo Borromeo, Vienna, or the Crucifixion with Mary Magdalene of the Kunsthistorisches Museum.
Martino Altomonte was born in 1657 in Naples, the city to which his father, a native of Tyrol, had emigrated. His real name is Johann Martin Hohenberg. Altomonte trained as an apprentice to Baciccia and then to Giacinto Brandi and Carlo Maratta. After a long artistic career, in 1684 he became the court painter of John III Sobieski, King of Poland, and for the occasion changed his name to Altomonte.
Commissioned by the king, he executed, among other things, two depictions of John III's victories over the Turks, The Routing of the Siege of Vienna and the Battle of Parkany (now in the parish church of Zólkiew, province of Leopoli). He then decorated Sobieski's residence in Wilanow near Warsaw (the mythological scenes can be attributed to him) and executed many portraits. Among these, the portrait of Queen Maria Casimira with her children is particularly noteworthy, a complicated allegorical composition inspired by examples of French court painting. After the death of the king (1696), Altomonte entered the service of various Polish aristocratic families: the Wodzicki, the marshal Stanislaw Jan Jablonowski, and Jan Dobrogost Bonawentura Krasinski. The works of this period have all been destroyed.
The invasion of Poland by Charles XII prompted Altomonte to leave the state for Vienna, where he moved in 1703. In 1707 he was admitted to the Academy of Painting and appointed assistant to the director, Peter von Strude. In the years 1703-1720 he dedicated himself mainly, on commission from the imperial family, to decoration work, such as in the Mirabell Palace in Salzburg (1718), or to compositions of a biblical and mythological nature (Susanna and the Elders, 1709, now in the Belvedere Museum in Vienna). The best known work of this period is the ceiling (1716) of the Marble Hall of the Lower Belvedere with the Apotheosis of Prince Eugene, a large allegorical fresco typical of the Austrian Baroque of the early eighteenth century. In 1720 he moved to Linz, and in this city, alternating stays in the Cistercian monastery of Heiligenkreuz, he remained until his death. In this last period he dedicated himself mainly to painting religious subjects, executing numerous paintings for Austrian churches (Heiligenkreuz, Herzogenburg, St. Polten, Linz, Wilhering, Kremsmünster, etc.).
Altomonte developed a mixed Neapolitan-Venetian style that would long constitute the standard for Viennese Baroque painting. In his paintings he was able to introduce the pastel tones typical of Venetian painting among the elements of the dramatic Neapolitan chiaroscuro.
The object is in good condition.
