|
Unknown for a long time this painting in Vác was revealed and identified as Pesce's work by Miklós Mojzer. Originally in the sacristy of Vác Cathedral, it is an authentic work of Girolamo Pesce, and belongs to a group of signed and dated works which were related to the Roman painter by recent art literature. St. Januarius is probably identical with a painting of the same subject mentioned by the canonica visitatio of 1729 as hanging above the sacristy portal of the old cathedral.
The picture's subject, the martyrdom of St. Januarius, is a very rare theme not only in Hungary, but even in Central Europe. The Bishop of Benevento, Januarius, was martyred together with his companions in 305. They were beheaded for refusing to worship the pagan idols. The blood flowed out from his decapitated head and was caught, according to legend, by a woman, as is portrayed in this picture. This miraculous blood has remained until today the symbol of Naple's popular patron saint San Gennaro. Girolamo Pesce represents the scene of beheading with dramatic animation and brutal force. His crouded composition is related to the Neapolitan traditions of Baroque painting. Also the pictorial approach and particularly the painting's theme unanimously refer to some Neapolitan connections, and verify the assumption that is was commissioned by the initiator of Girolamo Pesce's Hungarian works, the Bishop of Vác, Count Michael Friedrich Althan who, between 1722 and 1728, held the office of Viceroy in Naples, which was at the time under Hapsburg domination.
|
