"san Blas", Or Saint Blaise, Aragonese Painting Around 1550. (spain)

Oil on resinous wood panel (85cm x 47cm) and its Gothic style gilded wooden frame (101cm x 62cm) Sold with a certificate of authenticity This 16th century painting is a fragment of an altar which represents San Blas, called Saint Blaise in France. We recognize the Saint by his fish bones in his left hand. Indeed, according to The Golden Legend, after Blaise was appointed bishop of Sebaste and to escape the persecutions of Diocletian, the saint went to a cave where he lived as a hermit. Sitting at the entrance to a cave, the birds brought him sustenance, and the animals gathered around him to receive his blessing or to be healed when they were sick: we saw him feeding a fox, caressing the head of a lion or panther. During a hunting trip, the soldiers of the local governor came across this cave, and saw the crowd of animals around Blaise, but they were unable to capture any of them. So the governor had the saint brought under good escort. On the way, Blaise saved a dying child who had swallowed a fish bone, and got a wolf to return a pig that he had stolen from a poor widow. The governor, unable to get him to sacrifice to his gods, had him thrown into prison.