Bidspirit auction | Giuseppe Danedi

Giuseppe Danedi - Giuseppe Danedi (or Doneda) known as il Montalto (attributed). ”Saint Francis in Meditation”, oil on canvas, 165x130 cm.. The painting depicts Saint Francis, seated, leaning against a tree trunk, in the act of meditating on the Crucifix, the Holy Scriptures, and death (which Francis called ”our bodily sister”), represented by a human skull placed, as a lectern, under an open book. The Saint has already received the stigmata. His left hand highlights the wound in his side. What is happening in this scene is probably a slow and deliberate realization by the Saint of his visceral ”imitatio christi”, brought to extreme physical consequences by divine intervention. The gloomy sylvan setting and the twilight atmosphere also contribute to the controlled and meditative pathos that may have followed the miraculous and traumatic event of receiving the stigmata. An episode narrated in the ”Golden Legend” by Jacopo da Varagine. Supporting the Saint in this humble self-awareness are four plump angels flying above him, whose somatic characteristics (together with those of the Saint himself) lead to recognizing the author of this painting as one of the two Danedi brothers known as i Montalto, Giovanni Stefano (1612-1690) and Giuseppe (1609-1669). Painters among the most significant and representative of the Lombard School of the seventeenth century. Giuseppe most likely painted this Saint Francis around the mid-17th century. Some stylistic comparisons, quite precise and convincing, can be found in the works of the two artists published in ”Giovanni Stefano e Giuseppe Montalto. Due pittori trevigliesi nella Lombardia barocca”, edited by O. D'Albo, Scalpendi Editore, Milan 2015. It is probable that the painting, also due to its dimensions, may have been commissioned by the Franciscan Order to decorate the wall of a chapel. Alessandro Rossi, art historian