Italian School, 17th century- Saint Joseph with the flowering rod (recto); and Saint Edward Campion holding his heart (verso); oils on double-sided canvas, 59.5 x 42, two (2). Provenance: Private Collection, UK. Note: According to apocryphal...

[ translate ]

Italian School,

17th century-

Saint Joseph with the flowering rod (recto); and Saint Edmund Campion holding his heart (verso);

oils on double-sided canvas, 59.5 x 42, two (2).

Provenance: Private Collection, UK.

Note: According to apocryphal sources, suitors for the Virgin Mary’s hand were to present rods to the high priest of the Temple. When Joseph’s rod bloomed, he was identified as her betrothed. See the version dating to the 1630s by Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652), held in the Brooklyn Museum [11.563].

Edmund Campion, SJ (1540-1581) was an English Jesuit priest and martyr. He was the first Jesuit sent from Prague to Elizabethan England by Pope Gregory XIII to actively defend the Catholic faith. He travelled through England incognito, celebrating Mass for faithful Catholics when to do so was counted treason and liable to the death penalty. He was eventually hung up and his heart was torn out while he was still breathing. In the present work, which has presumably been cut down, he is shown holding his dismembered heart as well as his (just visible) martyr's palm.
Please refer to department for condition report

[ translate ]