Description:

Latin America, Mexico, Spanish Colonial, ca. mid-19th century CE. A rare and beautiful oil on canvas painting of Santa Rosalia (1130-1166), a 12th century patron saint of Palermo in Italy, depicted as a young woman wearing a crown of roses, holding traditional attributes including a cross, a skull, and a spray of lilies. Santa Rosalia, also called La Santuzza (The Little Saint), miraculously came to the aid of victims of the plague that tortured the city of Palermo in 1624 curing the stricken of disease. Wire on back for suspension. Size: painting itself measures 10-1/4" x 7" (26 x 17.8 cm), with frame 13" x 9-5/8" (33 x 24.4 cm)

According to popular belief, Santa Rosalia was a pious woman who became a hermit and resided in a cave on Mount Pellegrino. She passed away in 1166 all alone. According to traditional lore, two angels led her to the cave. On the cave wall she wrote "I, Rosalia, daughter of Sinibald, Lord of Roses, and Quisquina, have taken the resolution to live in this cave for the love of my Lord, Jesus Christ." Years later, when Palermo was hit by the plague of 1624, Santa Rosalia's apparition appeared before a sick woman. She next appeared to a hunter and told him of the woman's remains. Rosalia instructed the hunter to bring the bones to Palermo and have them processed throughout the city. The hunter followed her orders, and climbed a mountain to find the woman's bones inside a cave. The bones were paraded around Palermo three times, and following this, the plague came to an end. Rosalia was then named the patron saint of Palermo.

Provenance: Ex-private T. Jones collection, New York, NY.

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#110654

  • Condition: Loss to edges and surface wear, as shown.

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February 16, 2016 8:00 AM MST
Louisville, CO, US

Artemis Fine Arts

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