Sevillian school, late 17th century. Lot n° 43

Sevillian school, late 17th century. "Saint Rosalia". Oil on canvas. Measurements: 70 x 52 cm; 83 x 65 cm (frame). Devotional painting representing Saint Rosalía de Palermo, touched with a crown of flowers and taking between her hands a cross, which she brings closer to her heart. With her gaze looking upwards, her rounded features are ecstatic. The whiteness of her face, slightly flushed on her cheeks, contrasts with the darkness of the background, so that her flesh seems to radiate divine light. The robe has been skilfully draped, contributing to the dynamism of the portrait. The palette is rich in red and green tones that accompany the soft shades of the flesh tones and the gilding of some of the details. Rosalia of Palermo was a 12th-century Italian saint whose cult was promoted by the Benedictines. She is considered a protector against infectious diseases, such as the plague, and is also invoked for protection in difficult times. Rosalia lived in solitude, poverty and penance, and according to her hagiography she performed miracles such as the extinction of the plague that devastated her native Sicily. Patron saint of Palermo, she enjoys great devotion in Sicily. Saint Rosalia was an important subject in Italian Renaissance and Baroque painting, particularly in the sacre conversazioni (group images of saints flanking the Virgin Mary) of artists such as Riccardo Quartararo, Mario di Laurito, Vincenzo La Barbara and possibly Antonello da Messina. But it was the Flemish master Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1637), who was caught in Palermo during the plague of 1624, who produced the greatest number of paintings of her. Saint Rosalia is usually depicted as a young woman with flowing hair, wearing a Franciscan hood or a crown of flowers and leaning towards the city of Palermo in her peril.