Day 231 - Saints Justina and John the Baptist



January 9, 2021

Gallery 606 is another space hung with religious-themed paintings by 15th and early 16th century Italian and Northern artists.  Perhaps it's because it's such a respite from yet more Madonnas that the painting I chose as my favorite is a small oil on wood, about 18" X 18", of Saint Justina  of Padua. It was executed in the 1490s by Bartolomeo Montagna, a painter from Vicenza I'd never heard of before. Okay, the subject is nominally religious, but that seems to be an excuse to paint an attractive young woman attired in sumptuous clothing.and wearing a necklace and hair ornaments featuring rubies and pearls. The artist has lavished attention on Justina's embroidered and bejeweled bodice and the white satin puffs at her shoulders, which, along with her face, shown in three-quarters view, stand out against the dark ground. The signage notes the sword piercing her breast, an attribute of her martyrdom, but unless you look closely, it just looks like another piece of jewelry. Really, the only way you can tell that she's a saint is the thin gold halo above her head.


The biggest "surprise" is indubitably a gruesome head of Saint John the Baptist painted on a circular piece of poplar about 13 inches in diameter.  The trompe l'oeil is so artful that the disk appears to be carved out, a true platter bearing the saint's head;  only from the side can you see that the wood panel is, in fact, flat. The work was painted around 1500 by Aelbert Bouts. It's utterly stomach-churning  (although the gory stump of the saint's neck is only suggested, not shown in detail). But I read that there were more than 20 versions of this panel, so the image must have been very popular.  Still, I cannot imagine wanting something so disturbing and, yes, ugly as a devotional object.


(By contrast, a small painting nearby by Piero di Cosimo shows John the Baptist as a  smooth-skinned young boy with flowing blond curls. The placard says that images of the saint as a youth were especially popular in 15th century Florence.  This pretty-boy saint would be a pleasant, unobtrusive addition to any household.)


 

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