Leseprobe

39 Annibale Carracci Bologna 1560–1609 Rome Saint Roch Distributing Alms 1594/95 Oil on canvas; 331×477 cm Purchased from the Ducal Gallery, Modena, in 1746 Gal. no. 305 The painting was commissioned by the Confraternity of Saint Roch in Reggio Emilia. It depicts a scene from the life of the saint, active around 1300. The young Roch donated his entire inheritance to the poor in Montpellier. He stands above the crowd before a row of columns, handing out gold coins. The plight of the poor is obvious. They are thronged in front of the saint, some on tiptoe, and look up at him beseechingly with outstretched arms. The sense of urgency is heightened by the sick man being wheeled in a cart, in the lower right. In stark contrast to this dramatic scene, in the left foreground of the picture a sense of calm has set in. Those who have received alms appear filled with childlike joy or silent gratitude, some are eagerly counting their coins. With this history painting, Annibale Carracci demonstrated for the Con­ fraternity of Saint Roch the meaning of charity in Christ’s sense, when he said: ‘Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth’ (Luke 12: 33). Annibale Carracci was a vanguard figure of Baroque art in Bologna. This canvas was quickly heralded as a milestone of its genre for its compositional density and rich blend of narrative threads. It has entered the annals of art history as the first large-scale, multifigure history painting of the Baroque era.  |  ah