Bidspirit auction | Baroque painting: Jacopo Amigoni (1682

Baroque painting: Jacopo Amigoni (1682 - 1752), The Mystical Marriage of St Catherine - Baroque painting: Jacopo Amigoni (1682 - 1752), The Mystical Marriage of St Catherine Oil on canvas in a stuccoed ornate frame painted in gold. Depiction of St Catherine being given a ring by the infant Jesus. The legend of St Catherine of Alexandria tells how the noble saint, in search of a husband to match her nobility, beauty, knowledge and wealth, is referred to Christ by a hermit. In a dream, after she has been baptised, he appears to the saint and - as a symbol of mystical union - puts the ring on her head. The Madonna, dressed in a red robe and blue cloak, holds the child, dressed only in a cloth, on her lap. St Catherine is kneeling on the left in front of the two, her right hand outstretched towards the ox hovering between them, the other placed against her heart. Very finely worked and detailed against a dark background. Frame with plaque: ”Amigoni J. / 1675 - 1752” Dimensions: frame dimensions approx. 91 x 104 cm, picture dimensions approx. 69 x 83 cm. Good condition with signs of age and use, craquelure and small colour flaking, frame with cracks and losses. Provenance: from a southern German private collection. Amigoni was an Italian painter, fresco artist, draughtsman and engraver of the late Baroque and Rococo periods. He belongs to the Venetian school of painting and, together with Sebastiano Ricci and Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini, is considered one of the first Rococo painters. As he worked in half of Europe in the course of his artistic career, Amigoni played an important role in the international spread of the new style. Amigoni was one of the most important Italian portraitists of the first half of the 18th century. He lived and worked in Germany (mainly southern Germany) from 1711-1729, where he became the undisputed pioneer of the Rococo style.