(Genoa circa 1632–1672)
The Vision of Saint Louis IX of France,
oil on canvas, 136 x 113 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Genoa, 1977;
Private collection Genoa, until 2018;
art market;
where acquired by the present owner

Literature:
G. Biavati Frabetti, Preliminari per Stefano Magnasco, in: Paragone, 1984, no. 409, pp. 29–30, footnote 45, pl. 27;
C. Manzitti, Magnasco Stefano, in: La Pittura in Italia. Il Seicento, Milan 1989, p. 797;
F. Lamera, Stefano Magnasco, in: E. Gavazza et al., La pittura in Liguria, Il secondo Seicento, Genoa 1990, p. 427;
G. Biavati, in: Genova nell’ Étà Barocca, exhibition catalogue, Bologna 1992, p. 220

We are grateful to Anna Orlando for her help in cataloguing the present painting. Orlando dates this work to circa 1656–1660 (written communication).

Giuliana Biavati, who wrote the first critical study of Stefano Magnasco (see literature 1984), was the first to propose this dating for the present painting which reveals many ties to Genoese culture. The composition conforms to the altarpiece typology adopted in Genoa after 1650. The generic depiction of the Angel follows a formula that derives from late Genoese Mannerism. Her depiction is in contrast to the highly original representation of the kneeling Saint which appears to have been conceived with all the intensity of a portrait. This subject reveals similarities with Genoese portraiture, spanning from Van Dyck to Carbone.

The saint is cloaked in rich fabrics and an ermine collar, and these are densely rendered to create what may be the most Baroque image of artist’s entire oeuvre. Even the crumpled pages of the book at the Saint’s feet – likely the Libro dei Mestieri composed on commission to the king-Saint by provost Stefano Boileau – are enlivened by the shower of divine light. In the opening onto the landscape on the right, beyond the ledge, a series of images, seemingly evocations, may refer to the king’s defeat on crusade, or the plague which he fell victim to outside Tunis in 1270. Stefano Magnasco frequently deployed this type of subordinate episode as a solution to inform the narrative of his works. On account of this complex pictorial and cultural layering, the present work ought to belong to a relatively late period in the artist’s career.

The unusual subject depicted in the present painting could imply a specific commission. During the Seicento the French frequently purchased the rights of patronage for chapels in Genoa, choosing from Franciscan churches and dedicating them to their protector Saint Louis (and in Rome they even dedicated an entire church - San Luigi dei Francesi). In the Genoese church of the Annunziata del Vasto, for example, the still extant chapel of San Luigi dei Francesi was purchased in 1662 from the Invrea. This dating would also work for the present painting by Stefano Magnasco. It is therefore likely that this painting was conceived as an altarpiece for a French chapel in a Franciscan church in Genoa, or given its dimensions, for one of the artisan guilds of the city that had adopted Saint Louis as a patron. Examples of such guilds were the corporation of carpenters and brick-layers, haberdashers, tailors and embroiderers, ribbon and button makers, and the makers of sacred adornments, or fishermen, barbers and wigmakers.

The present painting’s iconography and style both support a date after 1660. The Saint died from the plague outside Tunis, and in the background, we can identify possible references to the epidemic, which also struck Genoa at this time. Therefore, the commission of the subject of this composition may related to this event.

Stefano Magnasco, the father of Alessandro, was born in Genoa in about 1635 and he was taught by Valerio Castello. He travelled to Rome around the time that plague broke out in Genoa in 1656 and remained there until about 1660. Subsequently, the work he produced during the last decade of his life (1660–1672) reveals an entirely transformed pictorial language: he abandoned the lightness of touch he had learnt from Valerio Castello in favour of greater sculptural plasticity in the rendering of form and clearly enclosed fields of colour, defined within a contoured outline. The impact of his Roman experience is evident in his increased predisposition towards studied compositional designs and an almost sculptural arrangement of figures.