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Martino AltomonteMartino Altomonte, St. Ursula in Gloria
About the Item
Martino Altomonte (Naples, 1657 - Vienna, 1745), attr.
Saint Ursula in Glory
Oil on canvas, 135 x 88 cm
The earliest records of St. Ursula's life date back to the 9th century, when the relics of several young women were found in a crypt near Cologne. These relics were associated with a local legend about a British princess named Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins who were martyred by the Huns.
According to tradition, Ursula, betrothed to a Hun prince, refused marriage to devote herself to religious life. Together with thousands of virgins, he boarded a ship to Rome to make a pilgrimage and receive baptism. Upon their return, they found Cologne besieged by the Huns. Rather than renounce their faith, the virgins had themselves killed by the barbarians. Ursula, in particular, was pierced by an arrow. And it is precisely the moment before death that is depicted at the bottom of the painting: Ursula tied to shackles is about to be shot by the arrow already stuck by the soldier, in the distance a tangle of bodies testify to the brutal episode.
In the center of the composition, the figure of the saint is elevated to heaven in a swirl of clouds and divine light. Her attire is refined and rich: the golden outlines of her robes, the pearls around her neck, and her crown and cloak basted in ermine emphasize her royal lineage. In her hands she holds the palm, symbol of martyrdom, while two angels at her feet hold arrows, as a reference to her cruel death; the lily, which alludes to her purity and virginity; and the laurel wreath, symbol of victory and triumph.
The composition of the painting, especially in the treatment of the saint's face with her eyes turned upward in deep divine ecstasy allow us to link the present painting to the production of Martino Altomonte (Naples, 1657 - Vienna, 1745). Some of the master's works, such as the canvas of the Altar of St. Bernard in Lilienfeld Abbey, are cited as evidence for the attribution; in it the strong chiaroscuro contrasts of the face and the general warm tone of the composition are all echoed in our painting. The same careful use of shadows, especially in the description of faces, is also found in other paintings such as the Resurrection of the Son of the Widow of Naim in the Church of St. Charles Borromeo, Vienna, or the Crucifixion with Mary Magdalene in the Kunsthistorisches Museum.
Martino Altomonte was born in 1657 in Naples, a city to which his father, a native of Tyrol, had emigrated. His real name is Johann Martin Hohenberg. Altomonte trained as an apprentice of Baciccia and then of Giacinto Brandi and Carlo Maratta. After a long artistic journey in 1684 he became the court painter of John III Sobieski, king of Poland, and changed his name to Altomonte for the occasion.
For the king's commission he executed, among other things, two depictions of John III's victories over the Turks, The Route of the Siege of Vienna and the Battle of Parkany (now in the parish church in Zòlkiew, Lviv province). He then decorated the Sobieski residence in Wilanow near Warsaw (mythological scenes can be attributed to him) and executed many portraits. Particularly noteworthy among these is the portrait of Queen Mary Casimira with her children, a complicated allegorical composition inspired by examples of French court painting. After the king's death (1696), Altomonte passed into the service of various Polish aristocratic families: of the Wodzicki, Marshal Stanislaw Jan Jablonowski, and Jan Dobrogost Bonawentura Krasinski. The works of this period have all been destroyed .
Charles XII's invasion of Poland prompted Altomonte to leave the state for Vienna, where he moved in 1703. In 1707 he was admitted to the Academy of Painting and appointed assistant to the director, Peter von Strude. In the years 1703-1720 he devoted himself mainly, on commission from the imperial family, to decorative works, as in the Mirabell Palace in Salzburg (1718), or to compositions of a biblical and mythological character (Susanna and the Old Men, 1709, now in the Belvedere Museum in Vienna). The best-known work from this period is the ceiling (1716) of the Lower Belvedere Marble Hall with the Apotheosis of Prince Eugene, a large allegorical fresco typical of early 18th-century Austrian Baroque. In 1720 he moved to Linz, and in this city, alternating stays in the Cistercian monastery of Heiligenkreuz, he remained until his death. In the latter period he devoted himself mainly to painting religious subjects, executing numerous paintings for Austrian churches (Heiligenkreuz, Herzogenburg, St. Polten, Linz, Wilhering, Kremsmùnster, etc.),
Altomonte developed a mixed Neapolitan-Venetian style that would long set the standard for Viennese Baroque painting. In his paintings he knew how to introduce the pastel tones typical of Venetian painting among the elements of dramatic Neapolitan chiaroscuro.
The item is in good condition
- Creator:Martino Altomonte (1657 - 1745, Italian)
- Dimensions:Height: 135 in (342.9 cm)Width: 88 in (223.52 cm)
- More Editions & Sizes:135x88 cmPrice: $7,185
- Medium:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Milan, IT
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU2639215521442
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