Circle Of Domenico Piola (genoa, 1627 - 1703) Madonna With Child And Saint Dominic

Circle of Domenico Piola (Genoa, 1627 - Genoa, 8 April 1703)

Madonna with Child and Saint Dominic

Oil on canvas, cm 76,5 x 63,5

With frame cm 95 x 83

In this beautiful 17th century painting, at the feet of the Virgin and Child is represented Saint Dominic de Guzmán, founder of the strict religious order of Dominicans particularly active in the fight against the spread of heresies. According to what the sacred scriptures report, with particular reference to the texts of the Dominican Alano della Rupe, dated around the beginning of the thirteenth century, during his pilgrimage aimed at spreading the word of God throughout Europe, Saint Dominic was kidnapped by a crew of pirates who took him with them on a ship whose voyage in the open sea was endangered by a sudden storm: in this situation, the Virgin manifested to Domenico, indicating to him the Holy Rosary as the only salvation from the shipwreck and death of all of them. The Saint gave the pirates that warning, they accepted it, and immediately the fury of the sea subsided. The pirates were the first members of the Confraternity of the Rosary, the home of the Virgin Mary on earth. By the will of Our Lady, the Rosary was no longer just an instrument of personal salvation, but a weapon of community prayer. From the Middle Ages onwards, in fact, the devotion to the holy rosary, perceived as an instrument of collective prayer and as a precious antidote to the spread of heresies, spread very quickly with regard to the panorama of Western Christianity. Between the 16th and 17th centuries, there are many artists who choose to represent in their works the moment when Our Lady gives the rosary to the founder of the Dominican order: We only need to think of the famous Madonna del Rosario by Lorenzo Lotto for the town hall of Cingoli or the Madonna with the Child and San Domenico by Ludovico Carracci at the National Art Gallery in Bologna.