Full title | Saint Filippo Benizzi |
---|---|
Artist | Girolamo Romanino |
Artist dates | about 1484 - about 1560 |
Group | High Altarpiece, S. Alessandro, Brescia |
Date made | about 1524 |
Medium and support | Oil on wood |
Dimensions | 74.2 x 64.9 cm |
Acquisition credit | Bought, 1857 |
Inventory number | NG297.5 |
Location | Not on display |
Collection | Main Collection |
This painting is part of Romanino’s high altarpiece for S. Alessandro in Brescia. It depicts Saint Filippo Benizzi and is situated to the right of an image of the Nativity, above a panel of Saint Jerome.
Saint Filippo Benizzi (1233–1285) was born in Florence. He became fifth general of the Order of the Servants of Mary (the Servite Order) and its chief propagator and organiser. The Servites were devoted to preaching the Gospel and encouraging devotion to the Virgin Mary. Saint Filippo Benizzi was beatified by Pope Leo X in 1516 and made a saint by Pope Clement X in 1671.
The church for which this altarpiece was made belonged to the Servite Order. Saint Filippo Benizzi is shown wearing the black scapular, tunic and cowl of the Servite Order and holding a lily, which is echoed in the crosier held by Saint Gaudioso, who appears opposite him.
This painting is part of Romanino’s high altarpiece for S. Alessandro in Brescia. It depicts Saint Filippo Benizzi and is situated to the right of the Nativity, above the panel of Saint Jerome.
Saint Filippo Benizzi (1233–1285) was born in Florence. He became fifth general of the Order of the Servants of Mary (the Servite Order) and its chief propagator and organiser. The Servites were a mendicant order who embraced poverty and were devoted to preaching the Gospel and encouraging devotion to the Virgin Mary. The Order was suppressed in 1276 by Pope Innocent V, while Filippo Benizzi was its general superior. He travelled to Rome but Pope Innocent V died before he arrived. Pope Martin IV asked Filippo to go to Forli and attempt to reconcile the divided city, which he succeeded in doing. He is also reputed to have healed a leper by giving him his tunic to wear. Saint Filippo Benizzi’s body is in the church of the Servants of Mary in Todi, Umbria. He was beatified by Pope Leo X in 1516 and made a saint by Pope Clement X in 1671.
The church for which this altarpiece was made belonged to the Servite Order. Saint Filippo Benizzi wears the black scapular, tunic and cowl of the Order and holds a lily, which is echoed in the crosier held by Saint Gaudioso, who appears opposite him.
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High Altarpiece, S. Alessandro, Brescia
Romanino made this painting for the high altar of Sant' Alessandro in Brescia. It may have been commissioned by the Confraternity of Corpus Christi – a lay brotherhood which venerated the body of Christ – who were responsible for the high altar.
The central panel shows the Nativity, with Mary and Joseph kneeling before the infant Christ. On either side, panels depict Saint Alexander (lower left) and Saint Jerome (lower right). Above them are Saint Gaudioso (upper left) and Saint Filippo Benizzi (upper right.)
The painting originally had a crowning panel of the dead Saviour supported by the Virgin and Saint John. It also had large canvas shutters to protect it – The Annunciation was painted on the outside of the shutters, and on the inside was The Adoration of the Magi. The elaborate frame of the altarpiece, made by the woodcarver Stefano Lamberti, which would have formed a fundamental part of it, is now missing.
Romanino made this painting for the high altar of S. Alessandro in Brescia, which served as a parish church although it was attached to a Servite convent. It may have been commissioned by the Confraternity of Corpus Christi – a lay brotherhood which venerated the body of Christ – who were then responsible for the high altar. On the altar was a wooden tabernacle which must have been directly below Christ in the painting. The Eucharist (the bread and wine believed by Catholics to transform into the body and blood of Christ) would have been kept in the tabernacle.
There was almost always more than one saint or mystery to be venerated in a high altarpiece, and this type of multi-panel painting, known as a polyptych, was well suited to the purpose. However by the 1520s, when this picture was painted, ‘unified’ altarpieces with all the figures on a single panel or canvas were more common in the artistic centres of Florence and Venice, and this format was a little old-fashioned. However it was still popular in the provinces – one of the other two high altarpieces made by Romanino for Brescia was a polyptych.
The central panel shows the Nativity, with Mary and Joseph kneeling before the infant Christ. The presence of the angels with a scroll suggests the annunciation of Christ’s birth to the shepherds, who appear in the landscape to the right. On either side, panels depict Saint Alexander (lower left) and paintings:ng297_3|[] (lower right). Above them are Saint Gaudioso (upper left) and Saint Filippo Benizzi (upper right). Romanino blends and layers his long expressive brushstrokes in the clouds and landscape to create a very distinctive, painterly style, which brings the surface of his canvas alive with movement.
The painting originally had a crowning panel, which was described in 1700 as depicting three half-length figures of ‘the dead Saviour supported by the Virgin and Saint John.’ It is very likely to be the panel by Romanino of that subject, which was photographed in a private collection in Florence but is now untraced. The altarpiece also originally had large canvas shutters to protect it – The Annunciation was painted in glue size on the outside of the shutters, and on the inside was The Adoration of the Magi. These may be the two damaged glue size paintings of these subjects by Romanino now in SS. Nazaro and Celso in Brescia.
The altarpiece was probably completed in 1525. The main panel must have been painted at least in part by 1524 as Romanino’s associate Callisto Piazza painted a polyptych showing the Nativity with Saints (private collection) which was influenced by it and dated to that year.
The frame, which would have formed a fundamental part of this altarpiece, is now missing. It was usual at the time for the frame to be commissioned to the patron’s specifications before the painting. The work on the frame for Romanino’s altarpiece was begun by the woodcarver Stefano Lamberti almost a decade before the painting. Lamberti was one of the most celebrated woodcarvers of his day and was almost certainly a more celebrated artist than Romanino. Lamberti’s elaborate altarpiece frames have freestanding columns with every surface carved with brittle, pierced, applied ornament of fantastic variety, involving grotesques, tendrils, trophies and geometric tracery. The frame design for this altarpiece is unknown, but it is likely that the central panel of the Nativity was displayed lower than the flanking panels so that the horizon continued across all three paintings.





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