07 Works, Today, February 23rd, is Saint Hieromartyr Polycarp's Day, With Footnotes - 53

Hieromartyr Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna

Hieromartyr Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna (167) was born at Ephesus around the year 70. St Irenaeus of Lyons, his disciple, says that St Polycarp was 'a disciple of the Apostles and acquainted with those who had seen the Lord.' His parents died as martyrs, and he was given into the care of a devout lady named Callista. As a child, the Saint was so eager to follow the commandments of Christ that he repeatedly emptied his foster-mother's pantry to feed the poor. Since her supplies were always miraculously renewed, Callista changed his name from Pancratius to Polykarpos, meaning 'Much fruit.'

When grown, Polycarp became a disciple of St John the Theologian, and in time became Bishop of Smyrna; it is told that the messages to the Church at Smyrna in the Book of Revelation are addressed to St Polycarp and his flock. He knew St Ignatius of Antioch personally, and some of their correspondence is preserved.

 St. Polycarp of Smyrna

Polycarp led his Church in holiness for more than fifty years, and became known throughout the Christian world as a true shepherd and standard-bearer of the Faith. About the year 154 he traveled to Rome and consulted with Pope Anacletus on the defense of the Faith.

Not long after he returned to Smyrna, a fierce persecution was unleashed against Christians in Asia Minor; along with many others, St Polycarp was arrested, having predicted his imminent martyrdom. 

On the evening of Holy Friday, soldiers burst into the farmhouse where he was staying. The Bishop welcomed them cheerfully, and ordered that a meal be prepared for them. He was granted some time to pray, and for two hours stood commemorating everyone that he had known and praying for the Church throughout the world. His captors sorrowed that they had come to take such a venerable man, and reluctantly took him to the Proconsul. When urged to deny Christ and save his life, the aged Saint replied, 'For eighty-six years I have been his servant, and he has wronged me in nothing; how can I blaspheme my King and Savior?' Told that he would die by fire if he did not apostatize, Polycarp replied 'You threaten me with a fire that burns for a short time and then goes out, while you know nothing of the fire of the judgment to come and of the everlasting torment awaiting the wicked. Why wait any longer? Do what you will!'

Niccolo Circignani (Il Pomarancio), 16th century

The Martyrdom of Saint Polycarp

Fresco

Church of Santo Stefano Rotondo al Celio, Rome

Niccolò Circignani (c. 1517/1524 – after 1596) was an Italian painter of the late-Renaissance or Mannerist period. He was one of three Italian painters called Pomarancio. His first works are documented from the 1560s, where he painted frescos on the Old Testament stories for the Vatican Belvedere and completed altarpieces for Orvieto, Umbertide, Città di Castello as well as Città della Pieve.

He painted frescoes (starting 1574) on mythologic themes including a Judgement of Paris, Stories from the Aenid, and others, in collaboration with Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi in the Palazzo della Corgna in Castiglione del Lago.

From 1579 he returned to Rome to work with Matthijs Bril and decorated the Sala della Meridiana in the Torre dei Venti as well as in the Loggie in the Vatican. He then became one of the artists favored by the Jesuits. Assisted by Matteo da Siena, he began depicting scenes of Jesuit martyrdom. He was further commissioned such works, depicting church martyrs, with help from Antonio Tempesta for the church of Santo Stefano Rotondo. Here he finally completed over thirty graphic scenes of martyrdom, depicting every gruesome method as if it were an advertisement for a torture chamber. More on Niccolò Circignani

Niccolo Circignani (Il Pomarancio), 16th century

The Martyrdom of Saint Polycarp, c. 1583

Basilica of Santo Stefano Rotondo al Celio, Rome

Placed on the pyre, Polycarp lifted his eyes heavenward and gave thanks to God for finding him worthy to share with the holy Martyrs of the cup of Christ. When he had said his Amen, the executioners lit the fire. The eyewitnesses write that the fire sprang up around him like a curtain, and that he stood in its midst glowing like gold and sending forth a delightful scent of incense. Seeing that the fire was not harming him, the executioners stabbed him with a sword. His blood flowed so copiously that it put out the fire, and he gave back his soul to God. His relics were burned by the persecutors, but Christians rescued a few fragments of bone, which were venerated for many generations on the anniversary of his repose. More on Hieromartyr Polycarp

The Martyrdom of Saint Polycarp

After: Niccolò Circignani

Church martyrs, c. 1580-1630

Engraving

Height: 271 millimetres, Width: 172 millimetres

Trustees of the British Museum

Church martyrs, with in the foreground St Polycarp being burned at the stake, and on the left a soldier plunging his sword into the saint's side; in the background, beyond the walls of an arena, the decapitation of St Justin at left, St Corona being torn by trees at centre, and St Victor being burned at the stake at right; after the fresco executed in San Stefano Rotondo by Niccolò Circignani Engraving

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04 Works, Today February 22th, is the Holy Martyrs at the gate of Eugenius at Constantinople's Day, With Footnotes - #52

Finding of the Precious Relics of the Holy Martyrs in the Quarter of Eugenius

During the persecutions against Christians the relics of the holy martyrs were usually buried by believers in hidden places. So at Constantinople, near the gates and tower in the Eugenius quarter, the bodies of several martyrs were found. Their names remain unknown by the Church.

All saints commemorated on February 22nd.

When miracles of healing began to occur at this spot, the relics of the saints were discovered and transferred to a church with great honor. It was revealed to a certain pious clergyman, Nicholas Kalligraphos, that among the relics discovered at Eugenius were the relics of the holy Apostle Andronicus of the Seventy and his helper Junia (May 17), whom the Apostle Paul mentions in the Epistle to the Romans (Rom 16:7). 

Apostle Andronicus of the Seventy

In the twelfth century, a great domed church was built on the spot where the relics of the holy martyrs were discovered. This work was undertaken by the emperor Andronicus (1183-1185), whose patron saint was the holy Apostle Andronicus. More on the holy martyrs

Andronicus I Comnenus (1183-1185)

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05 Works, February 20th, is Saint Leo of Catania's Day, With Footnotes - #50

Unknown iconographer

St. Leo, Bishop of Catania, Sicily

Private collection

Icon with water-gilding on plywood. The wood has been prepared in heat and gilded with gold leaf 24K, in accordance with traditional Byzantine techniques. The icon has been painted with egg-tempera paints for best performance and endurance of colors used. The colors were chosen based on studies and analyses of older icons by renowned iconographers, after ARTIS had first conducted conservation treatments on them. More on this work

Saint Leo of Catania, nicknamed the Thaumaturgus, also known as St Leo the Wonderworker in Sicily (May 703 or 709 – 20 February 789) lived at the time of the first persecutions of the holy icons. He was born in Ravenna to a noble family, and became bishop of his native city. Soon his reputation spread, and he was elected Bishop of Catania in Sicily. As is so often true even today, the city, though nominally Christian, was plagued by superstition and paganism. The holy bishop set about to turn the people away from error: by his prayers he caused a pagan temple to collapse and built a church on its site, dedicated to the Forty Maryrs of Sebaste. 

Unknown iconographer

Saint Leo of Catania

At that time the entire island was under the oppressive rule of a magus named Heliodorus, who used all his magical skills to oppress the people and advance himself. Though he had been taken captive by Imperial order, and condemned to death, he was always able to escape his captors by his occult skills. Saint Leo, who sought the conversion of everyone, did his best to turn the magus to Christ, but to no effect. 

Matteo Desiderato  (1750-1827)

Saint Leo Wonderworker who defeats the magician Heliodorus

Oil on canvas
Height: 410 cm (13.4 ft); Width: 275 cm (108.2″)

Mother Church of Santa Maria di Licodia

Matteo Desiderato  (1750-1827)

Detail; Saint Leo Wonderworker who defeats the magician Heliodorus

Oil on canvas
Height: 410 cm (13.4 ft); Width: 275 cm (108.2″)

Mother Church of Santa Maria di Licodia

Matteo Desiderato ( Sciacca, 1750  or 1752 - Catania, 1827 ) was an Italian painter, disciple of Mariano Rossi.

Very little information on the first years of his life His first news places him in Rome at the workshop of Mariano Rossi , also born in Sciacca and operating for years in that city.

He remained in Rome for a long period, during which he married a member of the small Sicilian nobility, from whom he had a daughter.

He then left his wife and daughter to return to Sicily , where he settled in Catania, the city where he spent the rest of his life and in whose province some of his works are still found, especially in churches of Catania, Acireale and Santa Maria di Licodia.

He was the teacher of Giuseppe Gandolfo and Giuseppe Rapisardi . And again by Luigi Montalto and Sebastiano Lo Monaco. More on Matteo Desiderato

Unknown iconographer

Saint Leo Wonderworker who defeats the magician Heliodorus

One day Heliodorus entered the church during the Divine Liturgy, mocking the Mysteries of Christ. The Saint came out of the sanctuary and, casting his omophorion over the mocker, instantly deprived him of his demonic powers. The Prefect of Sicily ordered the magus to be burnt alive. Bishop Leo went to the stake with him, but emerged unmarked without even the smell of fire upon him, while Heliodorus was burnt to ashes.

Saint Leo's fierceness in defense of the Faith was matched by his love and compassion for the poor and defenseless, for whom he poured himself out unceasingly with prayers, alms and visitation. By his prayers he restored sight to the blind and healed the paralyzed. After his repose, his holy relics, which exuded a fragrant myrrh, were venerated in a church that he had founded in honor of Saint Lucia. More on St Leo

Leo Katansky, his life in 12 hallmarks. 

The patron icon was made for the house chapel of the Yekaterinburg merchants

On the lower field of the icon in the cartouche is the text: “This sacred image was written from the creation of the world in 7327, the month of December, on the 19th day, it was perfect.”

The patronal icon was made for the house chapel of the Yekaterinburg merchants-Old Believers Lev Ivanovich Rastorguev and Pyotr Yakovlevich Kharitonov, items from which in 1921-1922. entered the Uole Museum.

Leo Katansky, his life in 12 hallmarks. 

The patron icon was made for the house chapel of the Yekaterinburg merchants

Center of the icon: St. Leo of Catania

Leo Katansky, his life in 12 hallmarks. 

The patron icon was made for the house chapel of the Yekaterinburg merchants

Hallmarks 2 and 3, Elevation to the rank of bishop, 

Care of the flock

Leo Katansky, his life in 12 hallmarks. 

The patron icon was made for the house chapel of the Yekaterinburg merchants

Bottom row stamps; The taming of Iliodor with the omophorion and the trial by fire of the bishop and sorcerer, Miracles created by Leo: healing the sick, seeing the blind, casting out demons, crushing idols and temples of idols, Miracle of Healing a Bleeding Woman from the Saint's Bed

The icon “St. Leo of Catan, with a Life" (1818, SOCM) was intended for the home chapel of the Yekaterinburg mansion of the Old Believer merchants L. I. Rastorguev and P. Ya. Kharitonov. Perhaps it was the customer of the icon, Rastorguev, who initiated the development of the hagiographic iconography of his heavenly patron. In the centerpiece, against a landscape background with slides, overlooking the fortress walls, city buildings and domes of churches, there is a full-length figure of a Lion with a club. He is wearing a phelonion with a large floral ornament, red vest and shoes, gold omophorion, stole. The icon painters managed to skillfully convey the texture of the tapestry fabric of the phelonion and the gold embroidery of the vestments. The saint is represented by an old man with a long, to the middle of his chest, narrow wedge-shaped beard. With his right hand he blesses with two fingers, in his left on the omophorion he holds an open Gospel with the text (Jn 10.9-10 ). Along the edges in cartouches are hagiographic stories accompanied by lengthy inscriptions. More on this work

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06 Works, Today, February 15th, is Saints Jovita and Faustinus' Day, With Footnotes - 46

Vincenzo Foppa, (1427–1515)
Virgin Mary and Christ Child with Saints Jovita and Faustinus, c. 1476
Oil on canvas
Height: 238 cm (93.7″); Width: 212.5 cm (83.6″)
Tosio Martinengo Gallery Brescia, Lombardy, northern Italy

Saints Jovita and Faustinus depicted as two knightly brothers holding the palms of martyrdom. Sometimes only Jovita is shown, richly dressed and on horseback; an angel may be shown saving them from drowning; sometimes shown with Faustinus of Brescia

Brescia  is a city and comune in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy.

Vincenzo Foppa (c. 1427 – c. 1515) was an Italian painter from the Renaissance period. While few of his works survive, he was an esteemed and influential painter during his time and is considered the preeminent leader of the Early Lombard School. He spent his career working for the Sforza family, Dukes of Milan, in Pavia, as well as various other patrons throughout Lombardy and Liguria. He lived and worked in his native Brescia during his later years. More on Vincenzo Foppa

Saints Jovita and Faustinus were said to be Christian martyrs under Hadrian. Their traditional date of death is 120. They are patron saints of Brescia.

"Jovita" in modern times is a woman's name. In some accounts the saints were instead Jovinus and Faustinus, brothers.

Bartolomeo Roverio, il Genovesino

The Virgin with Saints Faustinus and Jovita and two donors

Oil on canvas

198 x 144.5 cm

Private collection

Marco or Bartolomeo Genovesini (active 1628) was an Italian painter or two brothers of the Roverio family who were painters, and active in the Augustinian Monastery and the Carthusian Monastery of Garignano in Milan

Tradition states that they were members of a noble family of Brescia in Lombardy (northern Italy). Jovinus, the older brother, was a preacher; Faustinus, a deacon. According to the tradition of Brescia, they preached Christianity fearlessly while their bishop lay in hiding. Their zeal excited the fury of the heathens against them, then they were arrested by a heathen lord called Julian.

They were commanded to adore the sun, but replied that they adored the living God who created the sun to give light to the world. The statue before which they were standing was brilliant and surrounded with golden rays. Saint Jovita, looking at it, cried out: “Yes, we adore the God reigning in heaven, who created the sun. And you, vain statue, turn black, to the shame of those who adore you!” At his word, it turned black. The Emperor commanded that it be cleaned, but the pagan priests had hardly begun to touch it when it fell into ashes.

The two brothers were sent to the amphitheater to be devoured by lions, but four of those came out and lay down at their feet. They were left without food in a dark jail cell, but Angels brought them strength and joy for new combats. The flames of a huge fire respected them, and a large number of spectators were converted at the sight. 

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo,  (1727–1804)

Martyrdom of Saints Faustinus and Jovita, c. 1754

Medium fresco

330 cm (10.8 ft)

Church of Saints Faustinus and Jovita

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo,  (1727–1804)

Detail, Martyrdom of Saints Faustinus and Jovita, c. 1754

Fresco

330 cm (10.8 ft)

Church of Saints Faustinus and Jovita

They were tortured and dragged to Milan, Rome and Naples, and then brought back to Brescia. As neither threats nor torments could shake their constancy, the Emperor Hadrian, who happened to be passing through Brescia, commended them to be beheaded.

Grazio Cossali, (1563–1629)

Appearance of Saints Faustinus and Jovita in the Defense of Brescia, c. 1603

Height: 398 cm (13 ft); Width: 238 cm (93.7 ″)

Church of Saints Faustinus and Jovita

Grazio Cossali, sometimes called Orazio Cossali (1563 – December 4, 1629) was an Italian painter who worked in Brescia, Cremona, and Venice, active during the Mannerist or early Baroque periods.

In the Brescian churches of Santa Maria delle Grazie and Santa Maria dei Miracoli are paintings of the Adoration of the Magi and the Presentation of Mary in the Temple. He also painted for the churches of San Lorenzo and San Francesco in Brescia. He painted a small Coronation of the Virgin (1590s) for the parish church of Quinzanello. He painted a canvas on the history of Carlo Borromeo for the church of the Madonna della Stella in Cellatica.

The town hall, or Palazzo Communale, of Cremona has one of his paintings, one depicting the Harvest of the Manna (1587) in the Council Chamber (or hall of the Paintings). His son Giacomo was also a painter. More on Grazio Cossali

In 1426 Brescia  became a possession of the Venetian Republic.  An episode which disturbed the four centuries of tranquillity was the terrible siege by the Visconti troops led by Nicolò Piccinino, which lasted from 1438 to 1440.  At first  forty bombards battered the walls for months then the final attack was launched, only to be repelled by a thousand Brescian foot-soldiers and  six hundred horse; according to tradition their victory was also owing to the miraculous apparition of the patron saints of the city -Faustino and Giovita. The saints appeared on the bastions of Roverotto to help the Brescians drive back the fifteen thousand Visconti soldiers. 

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo,  (1727–1804)

Intervention of the patron saints in defense of Brescia besieged by Nicolò Piccinino, c. 1754 - 1755

Fresco

220 × 330 cm

Church of Saints Faustino and Giovita , Brescia

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (August 30, 1727 – March 3, 1804) was an Italian painter and printmaker in etching. He was the son of artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and elder brother of Lorenzo Baldissera Tiepolo. Domenico was born in Venice, studied under his father, and by the age of 13 was the chief assistant to him. He was one of the many assistants, including Lorenzo, who transferred the designs of his father (executed in the 'oil sketch' invented by the same). By the age of 20, he was producing his own work for commissioners.

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo,  (1727–1804)

Detail, Intervention of the patron saints in defense of Brescia besieged by Nicolò Piccinino, c. 1754 - 1755

Fresco

220 × 330 cm

Church of Saints Faustino and Giovita , Brescia

His painting style developed after the death of his father in 1770, at which time he returned to Venice, and worked there as well as in Genoa and Padua. His painting, though keeping the decorative influence of his father, moved from its spatial fancy and began to take a more realistic depiction. His portraits and scenes of life in Venice are characterised by movement, colour, and deliberate composition. More on Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo,  (1727–1804)

Saints Faustinus and Jovita Appear in Defense of Brescia under Attack from Niccolò Piccinino in 1438, c. 1754 - 1755

Oil on canvas

cm 52 x 70

 Pinacoteca di Brera. Milano

The many "Acts" of these saints are chiefly of a legendary character. The Jesuit Fedele Savio questioned nearly every fact related of them except their existence of the martyrdom, which are too well attested by their inclusion in so many of the early martyrologies and their extraordinary cult in their native city, of which from time immemorial they have been the chief patrons.

Their common feast day on 15 February, the traditional date of their martyrdom, was inserted into the General Roman Calendar . It was removed in 1969, because their "Acts are completely fabulous, treating Jovita as a preacher, although she was a woman and a man was Faustinus." However modern minds tend to forget that the name Jovita or Giovita was a man's name in the pre-Christian and early Christian era The two saints remain listed in the Roman Martyrology. The cities of Rome, Bologna and Verona share with Brescia possession of their relics.

Modern tradition considers Faustine's day as the anti-Valentine's Day. This is why (mostly in southern Europe) single people celebrate on 15 February. More on Jovinus and Faustinus

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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.

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04 Works, Today, February 5th, is Saint Agatha of Sicily's Day, With Footnotes - 36

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

The Martyrdom of St. Agatha, about 1750

(Altarpiece from S. Agata, Lendinara)

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1696 - 1770. Born into a wealthy and noble family in Venice, Giambattista Tiepolo was recognized by contemporaries throughout Europe as the greatest painter of large-scale decorative frescoes in the 1700s. He was admired for having brought fresco painting to new heights of technical virtuosity, illumination, and dramatic effect. Tiepolo possessed an imagination characterized by one of his contemporaries as "all spirit and fire." 

A gifted storyteller, Tiepolo painted walls and ceilings with large, expansive scenes of intoxicating enchantment. In breath-taking visions of mythology and religion, the gods and saints inhabit light-filled skies. His ability to assimilate his predecessor and compatriot Paolo Veronese's use of color was so profound that his contemporaries named him Veronese redivio (a new Veronese). 

Tiepolo's commissions came from the old established families of Italy, religious orders, and the royal houses of Spain, Germany, Sweden, and Russia. His frescoes adorn palaces, churches, and villas, and his artistic legacy consists of some eight hundred paintings, 2,400 drawings, two sets of etchings, and acres of fresco. When Tiepolo died at the age of seventy-four, a Venetian diarist noted the "bitter loss" of "the most famous Venetian painter, truly the most renowned...well known in Europe and the most highly praised in his native land." More on Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

Saint Agatha of Sicily (231 AD – 251 AD) is a Christian saint and virgin martyr. Agatha was born at Catania or Palermo, Sicily, and she was martyred in approximately 251. She is one of seven women, who, along with the Blessed Virgin Mary, are commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass. 

She is the patron saint of Catania, Molise, Malta, San Marino, and Zamarramala, a municipality of the Province of Segovia in Spain. She is also the patron saint of breast cancer patients, martyrs, wet nurses, bell-founders, bakers, fire, earthquakes, and eruptions of Mount Etna.

Sebastiano del Piombo

Martirio de Santa Águeda/ Martyrdom of Saint Agatha, c. 1520

Oil on panel

Height: 127 cm (50″); Width: 178 cm (70″)

Palazzo Pitti

Sebastiano del Piombo (1485 – 21 June 1547) was an Italian painter of the High Renaissance and early Mannerist periods famous as the only major artist of the period to combine the colouring of the Venetian school in which he was trained with the monumental forms of the Roman school. He belongs both to the painting school of his native city, Venice, where he made significant contributions before he left for Rome in 1511, and that of Rome, where he stayed for the rest of his life, and whose style he thoroughly adopted.

Having achieved success as a lutenist in Venice when young, he turned to painting and trained with Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione. When he first went to Rome he worked alongside Raphael and then became one of the few painters to get on well with Michelangelo. 

In 1531 he became the Keeper of the Seal to the Papacy, and so his new job title of Piombatore.

He painted portraits and religious subjects in oils, and once he was established avoided the large fresco schemes that took up so much of the time of Raphael and Michelangelo. His earlier career in both Venice and Rome was somewhat overshadowed by the presence of clearly greater painters in the same city, but after the death of Raphael in 1520 he became Rome's leading painter. More on Sebastiano del Piombo

Although the martyrdom of Saint Agatha is authenticated, and her veneration as a saint had spread beyond her native place even in antiquity, there is no reliable information concerning the details of her death. According to Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda Aurea of ca. 1288, having dedicated her virginity to God, fifteen-year-old Agatha, from a rich and noble family, rejected the amorous advances of the low-born Roman prefect Quintianus, who then persecuted her for her Christian faith. He sent Agatha to Aphrodisia, the keeper of a brothel. 

Lorenzo di Niccolò Gerini

Martyrdom of St. Agatha

Lorenzo di Niccolò or Lorenzo di Niccolò di Martino was an Italian painter active in Florence from 1391 to 1412. Often erroneously cited as the son of Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, with whom he realized some works, this artist transformed his style from one more reminiscent of Giotto to one more elegant and linear, similar to that of such artists as Lorenzo Monaco. Together with Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, he painted some frescoes in the Chapterhouse of the convent of San Francesco (Prato) and the panel Coronation of the Virgin, once in Santa Felicita. A slightly later work on the same subject for the Medici Chapel in Santa Croce, Florence, dated to 1409 in the predella, today is split between its original location and the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum in Milan. More on Lorenzo di Niccolò Gerini

The madam finding her intractable, Quintianus sent for her, argued, threatened, and finally had her put in prison. Amongst the tortures she underwent was the cutting off of her breasts with pincers. After further dramatic confrontations with Quintianus, represented in a sequence of dialogues in her passio that document her fortitude and steadfast devotion, Saint Agatha was then sentenced to be burnt at the stake, but an earthquake saved her from that fate; instead, she was sent to prison where St. Peter the Apostle appeared to her and healed her wounds. Saint Agatha died in prison, according to the Legenda Aurea in "the year of our Lord two hundred and fifty-three in the time of Decius, the emperor of Rome." More on Saint Agatha of Sicily

Follower of Simon Vouet

Saint Peter visiting Saint Agatha in prison, c. 1624

oil on canvas

149.7 x 176.8 cm.

Private collection

Simon Vouet, (born January 9, 1590, Paris, France—died June 30, 1649, Paris), painter who introduced an Italianate Baroque style of painting into France.

Vouet formed his style in Italy, where he lived from 1612 to 1627. The use of dramatic contrasts of light and shade seen in such early works as his Two Lovers indicates that he began in Rome as a follower of Caravaggio. Works done after 1620, however, display more idealized figures. Vouet’s Time Vanquished (1627) breaks with the tenebrism of Caravaggio, using the more evenly diffused white light that characterizes his later style.

He returned to Paris in 1627 at the request of Louis XIII, who named him his first painter. Thereafter, Vouet won almost all the important painting commissions and dominated the city artistically for 15 years. He exercised an enormous influence with such works as Riches (c. 1630), which was probably part of the decorative program of the château of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Engravings and surviving panels show that he had studied Italian illusionistic ceiling decoration. His other principal undertakings were in the Hôtel de Bullion and in the palace of the Cardinal de Richelieu at Rueil. More on Simon Vouet

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