09 works, Today, December 19th, is Saint Boniface of Tarsus' day, his story, illustrated #351

Unknown iconographer

Saint Boniface of Tarsus

I have no further description, at this time

There lived in Rome, about the beginning of the fourth century, a certain lady called Aglaë, young, beautiful, and well born, and so rich and fond of making a figure in the world, that she had entertained the city several times with public shows at her own charge. 

Alexandre Cabanel, (1823–1889)

Aglaida and Boniface, c. 19th century

Oil on canvas

Cleveland Museum of Art

The painting show Aglaida and Boniface, tired of their debauched living and on the cusp of discovering Christianity. The original was much larger and has been lost over time, a smaller copy which was made by Cabanel himself still exists though. More on this work

Alexandre Cabanel (28 September 1823 – 23 January 1889) was a French painter born in Montpellier, Hérault. He painted historical, classical and religious subjects in the academic style. He was also well known as a portrait painter. According to Diccionario Enciclopedico Salvat, Cabanel is the best representative of the L'art pompier and Napoleon III's preferred painter.

 

Cabanel entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris at the age of seventeen, and studied with François-Édouard Picot. He exhibited at the Paris Salon for the first time in 1844, and won the Prix de Rome scholarship in 1845 at the age of 22. Cabanel was elected a member of the Institute in 1863. He was appointed professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1864 and taught there until his death.

 

He was closely connected to the Paris Salon: "He was elected regularly to the Salon jury and his pupils could be counted by the hundred. Through them, Cabanel did more than any other artist of his generation to form the character of belle époque French painting". His refusal together with William-Adolphe Bouguereau to allow the impressionist painter Édouard Manet and many other painters to exhibit their work in the Salon of 1863 led to the establishment of the Salon des Refusés by the French government. Cabanel won the Grande Médaille d'Honneur at the Salons of 1865, 1867, and 1878. More on Alexandre Cabanel

Her chief steward was one Boniface, a slave to Aglais, with whom she also lived in fornication. This man, though addicted to wine and all kinds of debauchery, was however remarkable for three good qualities, hospitality, liberality, and compassion. Whensoever he saw a stranger or traveller, he would assist him very cordially; and he used to go about the streets and into the public places, in the night time, and relieved the poor according to their necessities.

Spanish School, 19th Century

Aglaë opened her mind to him

A WOMAN SITTING ON THE EDGE OF A BED

Oil on canvas

66⅛ by 49⅛ in.; 168.5 by 125 cm.

Private collection

Spanish School, 19th Century: The enormous wealth that followed the flood of American gold saw lavish spending on the arts in Spain, much of it directed at religious art in the Counter-Reformation. Spanish control of the leading centre of North European art, Flanders, from 1483 and also of the Kingdom of Naples from 1548, both ending in 1714, had a great influence on Spanish art, and the level of spending attracted artists from other areas, such as El Greco, Rubens and (from a safe distance) Titian in the Spanish Golden Age, as well as great native painters such as Diego Velázquez, José de Ribera, Francisco Zurbarán and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. More on Spanish School, 19th Century

After several years’ Aglaë called Boniface to her, and thus opened her mind to him: “You are sensible how deep we are plunged in vice, without reflecting that we must appear before God to give an account of all our actions. I have heard some say, that they who honour those who suffer for the sake of Jesus Christ, shall have a share in their glory. In the East the servants of Jesus Christ every day suffer torments, and lay down their lives for his sake. Go thither then, and bring me the relics of some of those conquerors, that we may honour their memories, and be saved by their assistance.” 

Unknown iconographer

Saint Boniface of Tarsus

Russian, mid 19th century

26.6 x 22.6 cm 

Private collection

Boniface came into the proposal; and having raised a considerable sum of money to purchase the bodies of the martyrs from their executioners, and to distribute among the poor, said to Aglaë on his departure, “I will not fail to bring back with me the relics of martyrs, if I find any; but what if my own body should be brought to you for that of a martyr?” She reproved him for jesting in a matter so serious. 

Boniface set out, but was now entirely a new man. Penetrated with sentiments of compunction, in all that long journey from Rome to Tarsus,  the capital of the province of Cilicia in Turkey. 

Konstantin Flavitsky, (1830–1866) 

Christian Martyrs in Colosseum, c. 1862

 State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Konstantin Dmitriyevich Flavitsky (September 13(25), 1830 – September 3, 1866) was a Russian painter.

His art education was at the Imperial Academy of Arts. He received silver medals from the Academy for drawings and sketches from life. In 1854, he was awarded a small gold medal for his painting. He graduated from the academic in 1855. He received a large gold medal from the Academy. He traveled to Italy (1856-1862) as a pensioner of the Academy.

He returned to Russia in 1862. The following year, he was recognized as an honorary free member of the Academy for the large painting "Christian Martyrs in the Colosseum", made in Rome. At the exhibition in 1864, the painting Death of Princess Tarakanova brought him the title of professor at the Academy of Arts .

The artist died at the age of 35. More on Constantine Flavitsky

No sooner had he arrived at the city, he sent away all his servants with the horses to an inn, and went himself straight to the court of the governor, whom he found seated on his tribunal, and many holy martyrs suffering under their tortures. There were no less than twenty being tortured. The sight whereof shocked the beholders, while their courage and resolution filled them with amazement. 

Boniface went boldly up to these champions of Christ, and saluted them. The governor thought himself insulted by so bold an action in his presence, and asked him in great wrath who he was? The martyr answered that he was a Christian, and that having Jesus Christ for his master, he feared nothing the governor could inflict to make him renounce that sacred name. 

Simplicius, in a rage, ordered some reeds to be sharpened and thrust under his nails: and this being done, he commanded boiling lead to be poured into his mouth. Boniface, after having called upon Jesus Christ for his assistance, begged the prayers of the other expiring martyrs, who all joined in putting up their petitions to God for him. The people, disgusted with so much cruelty, began to raise a tumult, and cried out: “Great is the God of the Christians.” Simplicius was alarmed, and withdrew. 

Unknown iconographer

Saint Boniface presented his neck to the executioner
I have no further description, at this time

The next day Simplicius ordered Boniface to be brought before him a second time. The martyr appeared constant and undaunted. The judge commanded him to be cast into a caldron of boiling pitch; but he came out without receiving any hurt. Lastly, he was condemned to lose his head; and after a short prayer for the pardon of his sins, and the conversion of his persecutors, he cheerfully presented his neck to the executioner. 

His companions searched for him in those parts of the city where they thought him most likely to be found. Being at last informed by the jailer’s brother, that a stranger had been beheaded the day before for his faith in Christ, and being shown the dead body and the head, they assured him that it was the very person they were in search of, and besought him to bestow the martyr’s relics upon them; this he refused to do without a reward: so they paid down five hundred pieces of gold; and having embalmed it, carried it home with them, praising God for the happy end of the blessed martyr. 

Francesco Maffei, (1605–1660)

Aglaë in her sleep

Mythological Scene, circa 1650

Oil on canvas

Height: 130 cm (51.1 in); Width: 161 cm (63.3 in)

Gallerie dell'Accademia, Florence

Francesco Maffei (1605 – 2 July 1660) was an Italian painter, active in the Baroque style. He probably trained in his birthplace of Vicenza with his father, and painted mostly in the towns of the Veneto. He died in Padua.

He is noted for his somewhat provincial stylistic quirks, combining the decorative manner of baroque with visual distortions and nervous brush strokes. His figures often glimmer with imprecise borders; a style which would characterize also the pittura de tocco e di macchia for decades. 

His canvases are often crowded with people and vigorous action. He was trained under the Mannerist painter, Alessandro Maganza, yet was influenced by a variety of painters. He is known to have traveled briefly to Venice in 1638, where he would have encountered the then brash new baroque painterly style. Maffei left Vicenza in 1657 and settled in Padua, where he died of the plague. He influenced a variety of painters, including Andrea Celesti (c1637-1711) and Antonio Bellucci (1654–1727), a mentor of Sebastiano Ricci. More on Francesco Maffei

On the eve of their arrival an angel appeared to Aglaë in her sleep and told her to prepare herself to receive her former slave, now the brother and fellow-servant of the angels. 

Enrique Simonet, (1866–1927)

Aglaë met the corpse with tapers and perfumes half a mile out of Rome,

Saint Lawrence burial, c. 1886

Oil on canvas

I have no further description, at this time

Enrique Simonet Lombardo (February 2, 1866 – April 20, 1927) was a Spanish painter.

Simonet was born in Valencia. His first vocation of childhood was religious studies, but he abandoned it to devote himself to painting. Despite being Valencian and studying at the Saint Charles Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Valencia, he joined a circle of artists in the city of Málaga.

In 1887 he obtained a grant to study painting in the Fine Arts Academy in Rome. Taking advantage of his stay Simonet traveled throughout Italy, visited Paris several times and in 1890 he made a tour of the Mediterranean. He also traveled to the Holy Land. In 1893 and 1894 Simonet traveled to Morocco as a war correspondent.

In 1901 he became professor of Studies and Forms of Nature and Art, at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona. In 1911 he became a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid. Between 1921 and 1922 he was director of the Private Paular for landscapers. More on Enrique Simonet Lombardo

Aglaë gave God thanks for his victory, and taking some priests with her, met the corpse with tapers and perfumes half a mile out of Rome, on the Latin road; and in that very place raised a monument in which she laid them, and some years after built a chapel. She distributed her wealth to the poor and lived in a monastery for 18 years. She apparently received the divine gift to exorcise evil spirits.

Unknown iconographer

Saints Aglaé and Boniface (3rd century)
I have no further description, at this time

They were found in Rome in 1603, together with those of St. Alexius, in the church in Rome formerly called of St. Boniface, but now of St. Alexius. The bodies of both St. Boniface and St. Alexius lie under the stately high altar in two rich marble tombs. The martyrdom of St. Boniface happened about the year 307. More on Saint Boniface of Tarsus

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