Saint Sirus c. 1460

tempera, painting

portrait

tempera

painting

sculpture

underpainting

academic-art

italian-renaissance

statue

Vincenzo Foppa’s "Saint Sirus" (c. 1460) depicts the saint in a richly ornamented robe and mitre, holding a crosier in his right hand. The gold background and detailed ornamentation, typical of the Early Renaissance, enhance the saint's holy presence. Foppa's precise rendering of the saint’s features and attention to detail are hallmarks of his style, demonstrating the influence of Northern European art on Italian painting. This small-scale panel painting exemplifies the devotional art popular in the 15th century, when such images served as objects of personal piety.

Comments

minneapolisinstituteofart about 1 year ago

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During the Renaissance, altarpieces commonly portrayed biblical scenes, such as Madonna and Child, examples of which are in this gallery. These two paintings, Saint Sirus and Saint Paul, were likely part of a larger altarpiece made up of many panels, called a polyptych. The presence of a saint on an altarpiece could have a number of meanings. The saint could be the patron saint of the church or city that housed the altarpiece, for example. The key to identifying saints is to look closely at the attributes shown with them. Saint Sirus wears a mitre, the pointed headpiece, and holds a crozier, or ceremonial staff. These attributes indicate Saint Sirus was a bishop. Saint Paul is shown with his usual physical characteristics-receding hairline and long, brown beard; he is also holding a sword, his personal attribute.