The Conversion of Saint Paul on the Road to Damascus, Circle of Antonio Tempesta (Florence 1555 - Rome 1630)
Oil on canvas (cm. 112 x 102 cm - Framed 125 x 114 cm)
Complete details (LINK)
The scene depicts the episode, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, in which the young Roman tax collector Saul, while heading to Damascus leading soldiers to persecute Christians, was blinded by a supernatural light coming from a tear in the sky that threw him to the ground.
From the clouds, the majestic figure of Jesus appeared and addressed the now unseated soldier, while his companions around him, dazzled by what is happening, flee on their maddened horses. "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" are the words that Christ addressed to Paul, who, covering his eyes blinded by that light with his hand, lowered his head.
The episode stages the amazement and fear of the Conversion of the soldier Saul, the future apostle to the Gentiles Paul, who spreads his arms and extends them towards the light, open to receiving grace and divine illumination.
Although it is a religious subject, it cannot be ruled out that it was intended for private devotion, rather than for a place of worship: the painting in fact has a purely "profane" rather than devotional character.
This is a work - of which the pendant is available (link) - to be attributed to the workshop or circle of Antonio Tempesta (Florence 1555 - Rome 1630), a leading artist and of fundamental importance for the seventeenth-century development of the pictorial genre of "battle".
His style, which falls in the period of the late Renaissance or early Baroque, is characterized by elements such as the dynamism of the composition, the dramatic use of light and shadow (chiaroscuro), and the expressiveness of the figures.
He shaped his art in the culture of late sixteenth-century Mannerism, acquired from his early training in Florence in the workshop of the Fleming Giovanni Stradano, with whom he collaborated in the decorative enterprise of Palazzo Vecchio.
Active mainly in Rome from 1572, he worked for Pope Gregory XIII in the decorations of the Vatican Loggias, and for many of the most noble and influential families, such as the Farnese, Borghese, Giustiniani and Rospigliosi-Pallavicini, and was mainly in demand as the author of scenes of historical and biblical battles.
Starting in 1613, he created for Grand Duke Cosimo II a series of engravings of the "biblical battles" inspired by Tasso's "Jerusalem Delivered", subjects that allowed him to achieve great success in the Medici household and in the Florentine Court, and which served as a source of inspiration for his subsequent pictorial production.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
The work is completed by a pleasant gilded wooden frame and is sold with a certificate of authenticity and a descriptive iconographic sheet.
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