Francesco Trevisani (1656 - 1746)

Francesco Trevisani (Koper, 1656 - Rome, 1746) Saint Mary of Egypt, circa 1710 Oil on canvas, 99 x 72 cm "The canvas depicts Saint Mary of Egypt in her hermitage in the desert as she contemplates the image of the Crucifix with mystical passion. The saint leans on a flat rock, on which she has placed the sacred book, the three loaves of bread and the skull, the instruments that help her in her daily meditations. The figure of the young woman is not yet marked by the rigors of the ascetic life and fully shows that sensual grace that had led her to fall into sin. The artist then lingers in describing her beautiful suffering face streaked with tears, her long dark hair and the precious blue robe, which nevertheless allows us to glimpse the terrible cilice that girds her hips. The physiognomy of the protagonist and the chromatic and compositional characteristics of the painting lead to confidently attribute the work to Francesco Trevisani. The attribution proposal finds confirmation in the significant comparison with a partially varied version of the same subject, painted by the artist from Koper in 1708 for Bishop Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn and now kept in Weissenstein Castle in Pommersfelden (Di Federico 1977, cat. 40, pp. 49-50, fig. 32). Trevisani made the two works in Rome, masterfully merging the results of his early Venetian coloristic training, in the workshop of Antonio Zanchi and Giuseppe Heintz, and the subsequent experiences gained in the papal capital, in contact with the most advanced intellectual circles of those years." - Galleria Giamblanco