Saint Roch
Flemish School, circa 1500
Saint Roch
Oil on panel
37,7 x 14 cm ; 14⅞ by 5½ in.
Catalogue Note:
This panel, which is roughly the size of a triptych panel, depicts Saint Roch. Devotion to him grew in the 1460s, particularly as a means of combating the devastating effects of the second plague epidemic that ravaged Europe. It offers believers the idea that they can intercede with the divine to receive supernatural aid (L. Marshall, “Manipulating the Sacred: Image and Plague in Renaissance Italy,” Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 47, no. 3, 1994, pp. 502–506). The young Roch, born in southern France, renounced all his wealth and set out on a pilgrimage to Rome. He passed through many cities in northern Italy, where he performed miraculous healings, and survived the disease himself. He died while unjustly imprisoned in France, but having received the divine power to heal others from the plague. Traditional iconography depicts the saint showing his bubo and wearing pilgrim’s attire: a wide-brimmed hat adorned with seashells and a bourdon, the pilgrim’s staff. The presence of the angel reflects an iconological tradition from the early 16th century, which emerged with a new version of the legend popularized by the Confraternity of Saint Roch.
Flemish School, circa 1500
Saint Roch
Oil on panel
37,7 x 14 cm ; 14⅞ by 5½ in.
Catalogue Note:
This panel, which is roughly the size of a triptych panel, depicts Saint Roch. Devotion to him grew in the 1460s, particularly as a means of combating the devastating effects of the second plague epidemic that ravaged Europe. It offers believers the idea that they can intercede with the divine to receive supernatural aid (L. Marshall, “Manipulating the Sacred: Image and Plague in Renaissance Italy,” Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 47, no. 3, 1994, pp. 502–506). The young Roch, born in southern France, renounced all his wealth and set out on a pilgrimage to Rome. He passed through many cities in northern Italy, where he performed miraculous healings, and survived the disease himself. He died while unjustly imprisoned in France, but having received the divine power to heal others from the plague. Traditional iconography depicts the saint showing his bubo and wearing pilgrim’s attire: a wide-brimmed hat adorned with seashells and a bourdon, the pilgrim’s staff. The presence of the angel reflects an iconological tradition from the early 16th century, which emerged with a new version of the legend popularized by the Confraternity of Saint Roch.
