Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague–Stricken of Palermo

Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague–Stricken of Palermo is a 1624 painting by Anthony van Dyck, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York since 1871.[1][2]

St Rosalie Interceding for the Plague-stricken of Palermo
ArtistAnthony van Dyck
Year1624
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions99.7 cm × 73.7 cm (39.3 in × 29.0 in)
LocationMetropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Accession71.41

The painting depicts Saint Rosalia, the patron saint of Palermo, interceding for the city during an outbreak of the plague. In the background can be seen the port of Palermo and Monte Pellegrino.

The painting was one of six of Saint Rosalia produced in Palermo by van Dyck in the late summer of 1624 and early 1625, when the city was quarantined. He returned to the subject in 1629 with Coronation of Saint Rosalia (Vienna) and Saint Rosalia Interceding for the City of Palermo (Ponce, Puerto Rico).

The work is currently (2020) on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was an early acquisition by the institution, whose curators initially mistook it for an Assumption of the Virgin.[3] An undated but probably autograph copy of the work is now in the Alte Pinakothek München.[4]

History

The saint's remains (she died in 1166) were said to have been found on Mount Pellegrino on 15 July 1624, the same year as the painting was executed. The piece was bought or commissioned by Antonio Ruffo, a Sicilian nobleman and art collector, who later also owned Aristotle with a Bust of Homer by Rembrandt, which he commissioned in 1653, and was patron to Matthias Stom. In recent years, using the technique of radiography based on neutron emission, it has been discovered that for this particular painting, van Dyck re-used a canvas which had previously borne a sketch for a self-portrait.

References
  1. Salomon, Xavier F. (2012). Van Dyck in Sicily 1624-1625 : Painting and the Plague. Milan: Silvana Editoriale Spa. pp. 104–107. ISBN 978-8836621729.
  2. "Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague-stricken of Palermo". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 19 October 2018.
  3. Farago, Jason (26 March 2020). "The Saint Who Stopped an Epidemic Is on Lockdown at the Met". New York Times. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
  4. "Catalogue entry".
  • This article contains elements from the equivalent article on Italian Wikipedia


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