(Milan ?, circa 1587 – Milan ?, after 1635)
Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, with Saint Agatha and Saint John the Baptist
Oil on canvas
170 x 196 cm
Provenance : Costa de Beauregard family, Château de La Motte, La Motte Servolex (Savoie) ; Costa de Beauregard collection, Paris.
Literature : Giuseppe Vermiglio. Un peintre caravagesque entre Rome et la Lombardie, catalogue d’exposition, Galleria Civica di Campione d’Italia, éditée par D. Pescarmona, Milan, 2000.
Landed on the antiques market in 2021 and certainly carried out for religious clients, as its exceptional dimensions suggest, the center of the canvas tells the story of the Saint Catherine of Alexandria’s mystical marriage, representing the famous vision which came to the Alexandrian virgin martyr in a dream. The Child, sitting on the knees of his mother, is about to put the wedding ring on the finger of the saint kneeling in front of him. She is shown wearing the crown and jewels that signify her noble origins, while at his feet is the toothed wheel, symbol of the martyrdom from which she had miraculously escaped.
The image is embellished by the presence of St. John the Baptist, lamb at his side, and by Saint Agatha, recognizable from the two breasts displayed on a metal salver and by the palm frond of martyrdom.
Although the addition of other, not relevant, saints to the scene of the Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine was already to be found in many sixteenth-century interpretations of the subject, the decision in the work analyzed here to place Saint Agatha and San John the Baptist symmetrically on either side of the Virgin, recalls compositions of ‘Sacred conversations’ where the Virgin is enthroned and framed by saints. The idea of placing the Virgin in the exact center of the painting, on a small rocky rise that accentuates her importance compared to the other protagonists, confirms this reference.Never published before, the painting is one of the best creations of the mature works of Giuseppe Vermiglio, an artist of probable Milanese origin, who trained in Rome at the beginning of the 17th century, a figure who was brought into focus and enhanced by research carried out in the late 20th century.
Born around 1587, Vermiglio was obliged early on to move to Rome, where documents mention him as early as 1604, indicating a turbulent life, characterized by fights and frequent legal issues, a life style singularly similar to that found in the Roman life of his contemporary, Caravaggio, of whom, not surprisingly, Vermiglio was a most faithful followers.
Returning to Milan in 1620, the painter’s work was an immediate success, documented above all by the numerous religious commissions undertaken for various Church edifices of the region, at that time led by Cardinal Federico Borromeo.It is precisely within this period shortly after he returned home that the canvas examined here is most likely situated.
Observing our Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine, it is not difficult to see Caravaggio at the root of Vermiglio’s painting, recognizable not only in the physiognomy of Saint John the Baptist and in the magnificent details of the lamb—depicted with impeccable naturalistic accuracy—but also in the chiaroscuro of the scene, in which the figures stand out powerfully against the dark background.
In the face of these connections, however, it should be emphasized that in the Lombard artist’s canvas the Caravaggio-like components are integrated in a new stylistic register. This is seen first of all in the rigorous discipline of the compositional structure referred to at the beginning, giving the work an openly neo-Renaissance character, reaffirmed by the solemn, controlled postures of the figures. These are stylistic choices that distinguish the artist’s entire Lombard activity, marked by a precise adherence to the reforms promoted by Federico Borromeo to guarantee to sacred works an exemplary clarity on an iconographic level and an expressive register marked by decoration and idealization.
Perfect interpreter of this “return to order”, Vermiglio offers in an elegant, cultivated variety of forms, in which references to Milanese art of the first half of the sixteenth century, from Bernardino Luini to Gaudenzio Ferrari, blend with a nod to the classicism of Bologna, in particular in the direction of Guido Reni, whose Roman works the artist had already had the opportunity of seeing, and of Alessandro Tiarini.
Regardless of their diverse figurative sources, what is most striking in the works of Vermiglio that can be dated to the time of his return from Rome is nevertheless the sensitivity of the pictorial treatment, skillfully alternating passages of surprising realism with details rendered with loose brushwork, impasto and great refinement in color. An example of this, in the Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine, is the contrast between the free and luminescent execution of the mantle of Saint Agatha and the meticulous rendering of the robe and mantle of Saint Catherine, whose ornamental embroidered patterns are particularly exquisite.