12 works, Today, July 28th, is Saint Eustace's day, his story thru art #209

Unknown artist

Saint Eustace, c. 17C

Patmos island

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

Saint Eustace, also known as Eustachius or Eustathius in Latin, is revered as a Christian martyr. 

Unknown artist

St Eustace and his family

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

In the 13th century French tradition of the narrative, it begins with Placidus (Eustace's name before he was baptized) hunting, and while hunting, he follows into woods a deer which causes Placidus to separate from a group of hunters. 

Pisanello, (1395–1455) 

The Vision of Saint Eustace, c. 1436-1438

Tempera on wood

Height: 53 cm (20.8 in); Width: 65 cm (25.5 in)

National Gallery 

Pisanello (c. 1395 – c. 1455), known professionally as Antonio di Puccio Pisano or Antonio di Puccio da Cereto, also erroneously called Vittore Pisano was one of the most distinguished painters of the early Italian Renaissance and Quattrocento. He was acclaimed by poets and praised by humanists of his time, who compared him to such illustrious names as Cimabue, Phidias and Praxiteles.

Pisanello is known for his resplendent frescoes in large murals, elegant portraits, small easel pictures, and many brilliant drawings. He is the most important commemorative portrait medallist in the first half of the 15th century, and he can claim to have originated this important genre.

He was employed by the Doge of Venice, the Pope in the Vatican and the courts of Verona, Ferrara, Mantua, Milan, Rimini, and by the King of Naples. He stood in high esteem in the Gonzaga and Este families.


Pisanello had many of his works wrongly ascribed to other artists such as Piero della Francesca, Albrecht Dürer and Leonardo da Vinci, to name a few. While most of his paintings have perished, a good many of his drawings and medals have survived. More on Pisanello

Marten de Vos, (Antwerp 1532-1603) and Studio

The Vision of Saint Eustace

Other scenes with tests of his faith beyond

Oil on panel

34½ x 44 1/8 in. (87.7 x 112.1 cm.)

Private collection

Maerten de Vos, Maerten de Vos the Elder or Marten de Vos (1532 – 4 December 1603) Flemish painter and draughtsman. In 1552 he went to Italy and studied in Rome, in Florence, and with Tintoretto in Venice. In 1558 he was back in Antwerp where after the death of Frans Floris in 1570 he became the leading Italianate artist in that city. The altarpieces that make up the bulk of his output are typically Mannerist in their strained, slender elegance.

Together with the brothers Ambrosius Francken I and Frans Francken I, he ranks among the most important painters of altarpieces in Antwerp during the 1590s. Due, in part, to the Counter-Reformation, there was a renewed demand for altarpieces to replace those lost during iconoclastic riots in 1566 or the reformist movement of 1581. 

Marten de Vos was also a prolific draughtsman, especially during the first half of the 1580s, when the Calvinists were in power in Antwerp. During this period he provided numerous designs for print publishers. A total of some 1600 prints were produced after designs by de Vos. De Vos's drawings have been praised for their lively, industrious and generally positive character, frequently with romantic Italianate landscapes in the background. His obvious proficiency is counterbalanced, however, by a degree of routine formularization. More on Marten de Vos

While he followed, the deer reversed towards him. Placidus is then awestruck by a vision where he sees the cross between the antlers of the deer, and in that moment, Placidus is commanded by the voice of God to be baptized along with his family on that very night by the bishop of Rome. He is baptized and has his name changed to Eustace.

Unknown artist

The miracle of St. Eustace

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

He receives another vision from a voice informing him of upcoming trials for he and his family where they will suffer; They lose their goods, servants, livestock, and social status. 

Maestro di Campo Giove (Nicolo Olivieri della Pietranziera?)

Eustace separated from his wife

Tempera on panel

40 x 32 cm

Private collection

I could not find any information on this artist

They attempted to travel by boat, however, Eustace couldn't afford the voyage. Eustace and his two sons Agapius and Theopistus were then removed from the boat and separated from Eustace's wife Theopista, so Eustace and his sons continued traveling. 

Unknown artist

his sons were carried away by beasts while they were crossing a river together

13th-century French Psalter

Trinity College Library, Cambridge

They arrived at a river where Eustace had to carry them across one at a time. After successfully taking one to the other-side, Eustace attempted for the other, however, both of his sons where taken by animals while he was crossing the river; one by lion and the other by wolf. Unknowingly to Eustace, his sons were saved and raised independently.

Manuel Panselinos

Saint Eustace

Protaton, Mount Athos

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

Manuel Panselinos or Panselenos was a Greek painter of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. Not much is known about Panselinos. There are ongoing disputes about whether he was a real person or just a collective image. Nevertheless, an icon painter from Athos, titled Painter’s Manual, that Manuel Panselinos hailed from Thessaloniki and worked on the Holy Mount Athos, making frescoes and icons of such high quality that he surpassed all previously known artists.

Panselinos was the main representative of this school. Presumably, he lived and worked in the late 13th – early 14th centuries, and is credited with painting the Dormition Cathedral of Protaton in Karyes, the Vatopedi Monastery, frescoes in the main churches of Pantocrator and the Great Lavra, as well as icons and other images in other monasteries of the Holy Mount. When researchers compared the painting techniques used in the Basilica of St. Demetrius in Thessaloniki with those of the Cathedral of Protaton, they found striking similarities and concluded that Manuel Panselinos had painted the basilica as well.

One of the main characteristics of Manuel Panselinos’s painting are the narrative nature of the scenes, the subtle rendering of movements and the accurate representation of body stature. 

Manuel Panselinos employs a rich color palette. All his lines are clear and expressive.

The Protaton frescoes are a reflection of a conscious desire to revive Classicism in Byzantine art in conjunction with the spirituality of Christian society. Panselinos succeeded in doing so: he introduced beauty and harmony to his paintings, while retaining their form and content. More on Manuel Panselinos

The sad style coexists with the austerity of a recruiter. The spear he holds with his right hand indicates his military status. A slight wear on the hair does not alter its contemplative form.

Eustace then worked for fifteen years as a guard protecting fields until he was approached by two envoys of Roman emperor Trajan who were sent to persuade him to return to Rome and repel an uprising; Eustace complied. 

Menescardi, Giustino documented 1751–1776

St. Eustace is again called to the military service, c. 1770

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

Giustino Menescardi (1720–1776) was an Italian painter and scenic designer, active in Northern Italy and Venice in a late Baroque style.

Little is known about his training. His works appear to display the influence of Tiepolo. In the Carnavals of 1756 and 1757, he collaborated with Francesco Grassi in the scenography for the Teatro Ducale and in the commedie francesi being enacted in the Theater of Colorno. On the 28 of January he was paid 704 lire for his work as a scenographer in the French opera Zelindor e Gl'Inca in Perù, the work il balli de Selvaggi, and the work Aci e Galatea. He painted the canvas of St Augustine triumphs over Heresy for the church of Santo Stefano, Venice. he also painted for the Sala dell'Archivio of the Scuola Grande dei Carmini[2] and in the Ducal Palace of Venice. More on Giustino Menescardi

Unknown artist, French School (20th century)

St Eustace, martyr

Illustration from Le Pelerin

Colour lithograph

There in Rome, he was reinstated his original rank of general, led an army, and coincidentally, achieved victory in the home country of the captain who abducted his wife Theopista. 

Trading life stories after the battle, two soldiers discover they were the brothers abducted by animals, and overhearing them, Theopista recognizes her husband Eustace. Eustace and his family then return to Rome to celebrate at a victory dinner under the new Roman emperor Hadrian who was less tolerant towards Christians. 

Giambattista Pittoni, (1687–1767)

Saint Eustace refuses to honour the gods of Rome, circa 1722

Oil on canvas

Height: 43.5 cm (17.1 in); Width: 81 cm (31.8 in)

Royal Castle, Warsaw

Giambattista Pittoni or Giovanni Battista Pittoni (6 June 1687 - 6 November 1767) was a Venetian painter of the late Baroque or Rococo period. He was among the founders of the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice , of which in 1758 he became the second president, succeeding Tiepolo.

Pittoni studied under his uncle Francesco Pittoni, a well-known but undistinguished painter of the Venetian Baroque. 

Pittoni joined the Fraglia of the Venetian Painters, the Venetian guild of painters, in 1716. From, probably, the same year until his death he was a member of the College of Painters, of which he became prior in 1729.  He was elected to the Clementine Academy of Bologna in 1727. In 1750 he was one of the forty-six members of the Veneta Publish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, which later became the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice ; from 1758 to 1760 he succeeded Tiepoloas president of the academy, and was elected for a second term in 1763–64. More on Giambattista Pittoni

Following the dinner, Hadrian requested Eustace and his family to make an offering to pagan gods; They refused. Eustace and his family were then thrown in a den of lions, but the lions did not touch them. 

Unknown artist

Death of St. Eustace with wife and child

Fresco

Gračanica Monastery, Kosovo

The monaster was built by King Stefan Uroš II Milutin (r. 1282-1321) in 1310. Frescoes painted most likely b/n 1318 and 1321.

Eustace and his family were then put into a brazen bull; They died, but their bodies were untouched by the flames. More on Saint Eustace

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, and 365 Saints, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

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