Venetian School, 17th century
Saint Nicholas of Tolentino in prayer
Oil on canvas, 74 x 56 cm - with frame 80 x 64 cm
Seal of the Venetian Academy of Fine Arts on the back
Saint Nicholas of Tolentino (1245-1305), in the canvas analyzed here, is portrayed wearing the black habit of the Augustinian friars and the tonsure, kneeling in prayer before a crucifix composed of two pieces of rough wood. Nicholas was born in Sant'Angelo, in the Ancona march, in 1245. At the age of eighteen he became a friar in the Augustinian Order and in 1270 he was ordained a priest. He performed several healings that earned him the fame of a thaumaturge. He settled in Tolentino, a center that was developing at that time, which led to the intensification and sharpening of political discord. Nicholas' presence and his role as a skilled preacher played a fundamental role in mediating the ancient conflict between Guelphs and Ghibellines. Alongside preaching, he always dedicated himself to the sick and needy. After thirty years in Tolentino he fell ill and died on September 10, 1305. The Saint is immersed in a lush wooded landscape, the foliage of the trees completely covers the surface of the canvas, opening up in correspondence with the divine apparition, below which a clear stream of water flows. When Nicholas was still studying in the Convent of Sant'Angelo, he went to meditate and pray in the countryside immediately below the castle and the Convent, going especially to the ditch still called delle Fontanelle, which flows at the foot of the great forest of Collechiarino. Stories handed down orally over the centuries say that, arriving near the ditch, he loved to sit on a boulder now placed in the middle of the water, called Sasso Massaccio. It is said that one day, thirsty, the young Nicholas, after lying down on the ground to rest not far from the stone, miraculously saw water gushing out right where he had rested his head, and in that point now there is the Spring of the Fontanelle. In the upper right is depicted the apparition of the Child Jesus, who, supported by a soft cloud and surrounded by a golden light, raises his right hand in a blessing gesture. In his left hand he holds a branch of lily, attribute of Nicholas and symbol of purity. The light emanating from the divine apparition illuminates the figure of the saint, forming soft plays of light on the drapery of the habit and reflecting on the surrounding nature. On the rock on which Saint Nicholas is leaning, next to the crucifix, are the large book of the Rules, a skull, symbol of the "vanity" of earthly things, destined to die, and an hourglass, symbol of the passage of time and the transience of earthly life. The painting in question is rich in naturalistic details investigated with wisdom both from the compositional and chromatic point of view.
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