07 works, Today, October 5th, is Saint Saint Placid's day, his story illustrated #277

Unknown artist

 St Placid & Companions, Martyrs

The Brighton Oratory

Saint Placid was born in Rome, in the year 515, of a patrician family, and at seven years of age was taken by his father to the Benedictine monastery of Subiaco to be educated. 

Il Sodoma, (1477–1549)

Benedict Receives Maurus and Placidus, between 1505 and 1508

Medium fFCollection

Territorial Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore 

Il Sodoma, byname of Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, (born 1477, Vercelli, duchy of Savoy [Italy]—died Feb. 14/15, 1549, Siena, republic of Siena), Italian painter whose works reflect the transition from High Renaissance to Mannerist style.

Sodoma, was from Vercelli in northern Italy but worked in and near Siena. He was influenced by Leonardo in Milan, and Pintoricchio in Siena. He worked in Rome for Pope Julius II, but was soon displaced by Raphael, whose High Renaissance style he then absorbed. He spent the rest of his life in Siena. His art has a slightly provincial but vigorous air. More on Il Sodoma

At thirteen years of age he followed Saint Benedict to a new foundation at Monte Cassino, where he grew up in the practices of a wonderful austerity and innocence of life.

Bartolomeo di Giovanni

Maurus, on the instruction of St. Benedict, pulls Placidus from the lake, c.1488

Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy

Bartolomeo di Giovanni di Domenico (1458?-1501) was an Italian Renaissance painter active in Florence. His works were first identified by the art historian Bernard Berenson, who did not know the painter's real name so called him the "Alunno di Domenico".

Bartolomeo di Giovanni painted many narrative panels. He also painted altarpieces, such as the Madonna and Child with Four Saints (1498) for San Giovanni di Boldrone, Florence, now at the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. More on Bartolomeo di Giovanni

Maurus and Placid went to fetch water in the lake. Placid falls into the water. Saint Benedict, sends Maurus to rescue the child Placid. Maurus runs over the surface of the water, grabs Placid, pulls him out, and then runs back over the water to dry land, carrying the little one in his arms. 

Melchior Paul von Deschwanden

Saint Benedict orders Saint Maurus to the rescue of Saint Placid

Engelberg monastery and parish church

Melchior-Paul von Deschwanden (January 10, 1811 – February 25, 1881) was a Swiss religious painter.

Deschwanden was born in Stans, in Canton Nidwalden. He was Roman Catholic and remained a bachelor.

He studied drawing with Louis Victor von Deschwanden, Johann Kaspar Moos (1825–1826) in Zug, Daniel Albert Freudweiler and Johann Caspar Schinz in Zurich (1827), then he enrolled in the Munich Academy (1830). After going to Lausanne to learn French (1835–1836), he returned home. From 1838 to 1840, he studied at the Florentine Academy where he won first prize for an oil of a male nude. In Florence he was particularly drawn to the works of Fra Angelico.

After a meeting with the Nazarene artist Friedrich Overbeck, he made a conscious decision to devote his life's work to religious painting. Finally returning to Switzerland, he received his first order for an altarpieces for the chapel of St. Peter in Lucerne. In 1842 he met members of the Düsseldorf school of painters and became interested in the work of the Austrian artist Eduard von Steinle, a fashionable religious painter and a Nazarene. In 1845 he discovered in the church of St. Louis in Munich murals by Peter von Cornelius, a classical artist who had been influenced by the Nazarenes, and visited one of his pupils the portrait painter and history painter Wilhelm von Kaulbach. Though himself a portraitist of talent, he devoted more of his time to religious paintings, creating a style of simple understandable compositions, expressive figures and a smooth technique. 

Deschwanden is believed to have painted over 2000 works, amongst which the greatest number are altarpieces, and for nearly forty years he dominated religious painting in Switzerland. His works were well received in Catholic and Protestant circles. Consequently, he sent his works all over the world, and examples may be found in churches in Annapolis, Maryland and Covington, Kentucky. His work was widely reproduced in pious chromolithographic reproductions. More on Melchior Paul von Deschwanden

Saint Benedict attributes the miracle to Mauris’ obedience; Maurus attributes it to Saint Benedict. But it was Placid who settles the debate: “When you pulled me out of the water, he says, I saw over my head Father Abbot’s hood, and I saw that it was he who pulled me from the water.” 

He had scarcely completed his twenty-first year when he was chosen to found a monastery at Messina, in Sicily, upon some estates which had been given by his father to Saint Benedict. He spent four years in building that monastery. There miracles made him known, and it was said that his humility was so perfect and had such charm, that it earned for him the affection of all. He could not see a poor man without hastening to aid him. One day he cured all the sick of the island at the same time, when they were brought and assembled before him for his benediction.

Niels Simonsen, (Danish, 1807–1885)

Pirates of the Mediterranean

Oil on canvas

90 x 112 cm. (35.4 x 44.1 in.)

Private collection

Niels Simonsen, (Danish, 1807–1885), see below

Niels Simonsen (Danish, 1807–1885)

Pirates of the Mediterranean, c. 1844

Oil on canvas

 70 x 83 cm

Private collection

Niels Simonsen (10 December 1807, Copenhagen – 11 December 1885, Frederiksberg) was a Danish artist, best known for his battle paintings. At the age of fourteen, he was apprenticed to a master decorative painter and began to take drawing lessons at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Later, he took private lessons from J.L. Lund.

After a successful showing at the Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition in 1827, he turned to sculpture and received some orders. In 1830, he was awarded a small gold medal for his relief of Christ healing the sick, which is now displayed in Kongens Nytorv.

Although the fees for these commissions were substantial, portrait busts were his primary source of income. His failure to win any more official recognition for his work soon prompted him to turn to painting. He held his first exhibition in 1833. In 1834, he left Munich, where he came under the influence of the Academy of Fine Arts and developed friendships with the artists there.

From 1848 to 1851, during the First Schleswig War, he concentrated on large canvases of military scenes, several of which were acquired for the Royal Collection. After that, he went back to genre scenes and took a trip to Sweden and created a major work symbolizing the reconciliation of Denmark and Sweden after years of bitter contention for the island of Scania.

In 1852, he was named a Knight in the Order of the Dannebrog and, From 1854 to 1883, he was a teacher at the Academys' Model School. He once again focused on battle painting during the Second Schleswig War and became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. He made his last major trip to Rome in 1870. More Niels Simonsen

The fifth year spent by the monks in Messina had not yet ended when a band of Saracen pirates who had already killed a great many persons, burnt everything to the ground in 541. 

Pietro Bardellino, (1728–1819)

Martyrdom of St. Placidus (Detail)

I have no further description, at this time

Pietro Bardellino (1728–1806) was an Italian painter. He lived his life aiming to be the ‘perfect man’.

Bardellino was born in Naples, and was initially trained by Francesco de Mura. In 1773 he became director of the Accademia Napoletana del Disegno which later became the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Naples. Bardellino joined with the Rococo movement, influenced by Corrado Giaquinto. He primarily painted religious and mythological themes in oil paintings and frescoes. He frescoed the ceiling of the church of San Giuseppe in Naples. More on Pietro Bardellino

They then put to a lingering death not only Placid and thirty monks who had joined him, but also his two brothers, Eutychius and Victorinus, and his holy sister Flavia, who had come to visit him. The entire flotilla of the invaders perished when these barbarians left the island, amid a sudden storm; although they had a hundred ships and were 16,800 in number, not one ship or passenger survived. A religious who had escaped notice wrote to Saint Benedict an account of the massacre, after burying the martyrs. Saint Placid was the first Benedictine martyr, and the monastery of Messina, which was rebuilt not long afterwards, was henceforth known by his name. More on Saint Placid

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

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.