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Premium Italian school with clear Byzantine influence. Circa 1500.
Italian school with clear Byzantine influence. Circa 1500.
Lot no. 14
Description
Italian school with clear Byzantine influence. Circa 1500.
“Saint Francis and Saint Clare”
Pair of oil paintings on copper.
11 x 8,5 cm.
In a Mannerist style, this pair of copper paintings reflects a clear Orthodox Byzantine influence used in icon painting: elongated figures to give greater spirituality to the saints portrayed, mystical and ethereal expressions, and a fine golden background in bright, precious yellow, associated with eternity and divine power, ostentation, and also wealth.Saint Francis and Saint Clare, the Saints of Assisi, or the Founders of the Franciscan Order and the Order of the Poor Clares, are represented in a stylized manner to increase their expressiveness and spirituality, against a golden background that gives them a mystical energy that seems to make them levitate, like two small “windows to heaven.”With direct, penetrating gazes, they contemplate the viewer (a faithful lay Franciscan follower) and display an open attitude that evokes gentleness, humility, and prayer.In clear Byzantine style, their lines are slender and the drapery of their habits stylized, reinforcing the spiritual dimension of these charming works.Both carry a book, perhaps the Rule. On both, against a red velvet background, we read “True portrait” and their names. It was she who, upon her death, left a series of writings, mainly her Testament and her Rule for her followers, the Poor Clares.
Two small portraits in vertical format that found their place in a place of meditation and devotion, on a cell wall or in a sacred corner, and which today may end up in the hands of a famous collector.
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