Full title | Saint Joseph |
---|---|
Artist | Moretto da Brescia |
Artist dates | about 1498 - 1554 |
Series | Shutters from a Triptych |
Date made | about 1540 |
Medium and support | Oil on wood |
Dimensions | 153.6 x 54.1 cm |
Acquisition credit | Bequeathed by the Misses Cohen as part of the John Samuel collection, 1906 |
Inventory number | NG2092 |
Location | Not on display |
Collection | Main Collection |
This is one of four panels that originally made up a pair of painted shutters to cover a central image, probably of the Virgin Mary crowned in the heavens. The outside of each shutter was decorated with a saint, the inside with an angel. When the shutters were closed, Saint Joseph would have been on the left.
Saint Joseph is more commonly portrayed as an elderly man, but here he is quite young, with a full dark beard and a turban. He appears like this in other paintings by Moretto.
Joseph’s staff is blossoming with flowers of the oleander plant, which is sometimes known in Italian as mazza di San Giuseppe (‘Staff of Saint Joseph’). The flowering rod represents the staff that broke into blossom to show that Joseph was chosen to marry the Virgin Mary, as told in the Golden Legend, a thirteenth-century compilation of stories about the saints.
This is one of four panels that originally made up a pair of painted shutters. The outside of each shutter was decorated with a saint, the inside with an angel. The shutters would have flanked and protected a central image, probably of the Virgin Mary being crowned in the heavens. The two angels that would have faced the central image when the shutters were open stand on plinths inscribed ‘Hail Queen of the Heavens’.
When the shutters were closed, Saint Joseph would have been on the left. He wears a white turban, similar to those worn by Turks in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italian paintings. It is not common to show Saint Joseph wearing a turban, but he wears one in other paintings by Moretto, such as the Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist in the Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan. The turban and eastern-style dress may have been intended to express the exotic origins of the biblical characters.
Joseph’s staff is blossoming with flowers of the oleander plant, which is sometimes known in Italian as mazza di San Giuseppe (‘Staff of Saint Joseph’). The flowering rod represents the staff that broke into blossom to show Joseph was chosen to marry the Virgin Mary, as told in the Golden Legend.
Saint Joseph has a full black beard and does not look old, as he often does in other portrayals of him. Moretto painted a similar looking Joseph, full-length, with a flowering staff and tunic of the same colour in the altarpiece with the Virgin and Child with saints in S. Andrea Apostolico, Pralboino.
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Shutters from a Triptych
These four paintings come from a pair of shutters that were painted on both sides. The angel facing right was originally on the reverse of the shutter painted with Saint Joseph, who has a dark beard and turban and holds a book and flowering rod. The angel facing left was on the reverse of the shutter painted with Saint Jerome, who wears an abbot’s hat and reads a book. The two shutters had been divided into four paintings by the mid-nineteenth century, probably to make them easier to display as gallery pictures.
In their original form, when the shutters were closed only Saint Joseph and Saint Jerome would have been visible. When they were open, the angels would have flanked a central image, most likely showing the Virgin Mary crowned or about to be crowned in the heavens. The shutters probably date from the end of Moretto’s career and may be by his workshop.
These four paintings come from a pair of shutters that were painted on both sides. They each show a full-length figure standing on an inscribed plinth before a landscape and cloudy sky.
The angel facing right was originally on the reverse of the shutter painted with Saint Joseph, who is usually shown as an elderly man, but here he is quite young with a dark beard and a turban, holding a book and flowering rod. The rod represents the staff that broke into blossom to show that Joseph was chosen to marry the Virgin Mary, as recounted in the Golden Legend. The angel facing left was on the reverse of the shutter painted with Saint Jerome. He is shown as an elderly man with a long white beard, wearing an abbot’s hat and reading a book.
The two shutters had been divided into four paintings by the mid-nineteenth century. The softwood panels on which the pictures were painted were divided and thinned to about 0.15 cm and then glued to mahogany panels. The decision to divide the shutters may have been made to make it easier to display the paintings, to increase their market value, or in response to the condition of the wood, which may have been damaged.
In their original form, when the shutters were closed only Saint Joseph and Saint Jerome would have been visible. Both important figures, these saints appear in many Italian altarpieces of the time and their inclusion may have theological significance specific to the chapel in question. One common reason for the selection of particular saints is that they share the name of the patron or another person important to the commission. In this case Giuseppe and Gerolamo are the Italian versions of their names.
When the shutters were open, the angels would have flanked a central image. The Latin inscription which is divided between the angels translates as: ‘Hail Queen / Of the Heavens’. The central image probably showed the Virgin crowned or about to be crowned in the heavens. It is possible that Moretto was commissioned to supply shutters for an existing picture or even a relief sculpture, and that the central image was not by him.
The angels are painted with more care than the saints, which supports the theory they were on the insides of the shutters. Less attention was generally given to the outsides of shutters, which wouldn‘t have been seen when the altarpiece was in use. The poorer condition of the saints also suggests that they were originally on the outside and therefore more susceptible to damage. Saint Jerome is particularly damaged, with many losses of the original paint which have been disguised by careful conservation.
The angels have features and expressions frequently found in Moretto’s work. The style of lettering and the pattern of vine leaves in the inscription are identical to examples found in other paintings by him. The flickering threads of golden yellow in the angels’ orange tunics resemble the gold on the Virgin’s cloak in Moretto’s Adoration of the Shepherds (Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo, Brescia). However, these connections do not prove that the paintings are by Moretto. They probably date from the end of Moretto’s career and may be by his workshop.
For many decades the National Gallery believed that they might be by Moretto’s pupil Moroni because of the cool range of colours used – but the colours are also characteristic of Moretto, so there is no good reason to suppose that this is the case.




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