Cercle De Murillo - Saint Roch Interceding For The Plague Victims - Oil On Canvas - Late 17th Century

BARTOLOMÉ ESTEBAN MURILLO CIRCLE
(Seville, 1617 - 1682)
St. Roch in glory interceding for the plague-stricken
Oil on canvas
47.5 × 64 cm (when viewed) - 84 × 97 cm (with frame)
Sevillian school, late 17th century

In the center of the composition, Saint Roch rises from a base of luminous clouds, dressed in the dark cloak and blue garment of a pilgrim. He holds the pilgrim's drone in his right hand, and wears on his chest the Compostela shell and birth cross which, according to hagiographic legend, marked him from his earliest days. His gaze rises to heaven in an attitude of ardent intercession.

In the upper section, two cherubs with colorful wings unfurl a phylactery bearing the Latin inscription EOS IN PESTE PATRONO - "[may he take it] as patron in the plague" -, framed by a cherub's head emerging from the clouds, evoking celestial glory. In the foreground, in an area of dense shadow, lie a reclining figure in a yellow ochre tunic - a victim of the plague - and a dog, the saint's legendary companion.

The light, treated in the Sevillian tenebrist tradition of strong chiaroscuro, concentrates its brilliance on the saint and the clouds, while leaving the ground in dramatic penumbra.
The work is fully in keeping with the aesthetics of the Seville school as defined by Murillo: softness of palette, unctuous modeling of flesh, vaporous clouds of great freedom of execution, and contained pathos proper to the great images of popular devotion. The depiction of St. Roch in glory - sovereign intercessor against the pestilential plague - met an intense devotional demand in 17th-century Spain, ravaged by recurrent epidemics.

Authentication: The work has been attributed to the circle of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo by Professor Enrique Valdivieso González, Emeritus Professor of Art History at the University of Seville and author of Catálogo razonado de pinturas de Murillo (Madrid, Ediciones El Viso, 2010), an international reference in the field.

On the reverse: handwritten Murillo inscription in ink on the canvas; the wooden stretcher is period.
Condition : Original canvas, with no holes or notable deformation. The work shows some restorations and retouching, on the whole well integrated. Good overall condition.

Frame : Spectacular 19th-century carved and gilded wood frame, decorated with high-relief foliage and foliage scrolls, with interior gilded fillet. Very good condition, a few small gilding chips.

Object on view and available for collection at the gallery (07240)
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