Lot 2
Studio of FRANCESCO DE ROSA (Italian 1607-1656)
Saint Agnes - circa 1650
Oil on canvas in ornate carved gilt-wood frame
Unsigned
39.5 inches x 30 inches (100.3 cm x 76.2 cm)
Estimate:  $7,500 - 10,000   € 5,550 - 7,400

Price Realized: $19,200.00

Provenance:

Van Limburg Stirum-Luden, as Zubaran

Anonymous Sale, Sotheby’s, London, 6 December 1989, lot 242 as Francesco Guarino (unsold)

Christie’s, South Kensington, 12 July 2002, Lot 178 (illustrated) and as by De Rosa

Private Midwest Collection.

Literature:
R. Lattuada, Francesco Guarino da Solfra. Nella Pittura napoletana del Seicento (1611-1651), Naples, 2000, page 263, G.24

The Neapolitan painter Pacecco De Rosa (Giovanni Francesco De Rosa) was a contemporary of Massimo Stanzione or, according to others, a pupil of him. He was influenced by his father-in-law, the painter Filippo Vitale, as illustrated in his earlier works, such as a deposition now in the Museum of the Certosa di San Martino. Also in the Certosa is a St. Nicholas of Bari and Basilius (1636), showing influences of both Stanzione and Domenichino, who was in Naples from 1631.

St. Agnes of Rome (C. 291-304) is a virgin who suffered martyrdom at the age of 12 or 13 during the reign of Emperor Diocletian.  Upon refusal of a forced marriage to the prefect’s son, she was condemned to death and was stabbed in her throat.  Her name resembles the Latin word for "lamb," agnus; however, the name "Agnes" is actually derived from the feminine Greek adjective "hagnē" (ἁγνή) meaning "chaste, pure and sacred." Agnes's bones are conserved beneath the high altar in the church of Sant'Agnese fuori le mura in Rome, built over the catacomb that housed Agnes's tomb. Her skull is preserved in a separate chapel in the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone in Rome's Piazza Navona. She is the patron saint of chastity. The palm she holds is the traditional symbol (attribute) of martyr saints. In pre-Christian times, the palm was regarded as a symbol of victory. It was adopted by the early Christians, and became a symbol of the victory of the faithful over the enemies of the soul. The palm, says Origen, is the symbol of victory in that war waged by the spirit against the flesh. In this sense, it was especially applicable to martyrs, the victors par excellence over the spiritual foes of mankind; hence, the frequent occurrence in the Acts of the martyrs of such expressions as "he received the palm of martyrdom."