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Work 2,240 of 2,421
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Scarsellino (Ippolito Scarsella) (Italian, Ferrarese, born about 1550, died 1620)
The Virgin Adored by Saints
ca. 1609
Oil on copper
19 1/4 x 29 1/4 in. (48.9 x 74.3 cm)
Gift of Mary Jane Harris, in memory of Morton B. Harris and in honor of Keith Christiansen, 2001
2001.417
This beautifully preserved and delicately painted picture shows the Virgin bestowing the scapular—a small piece of cloth symbolic of the yoke of Christ—on a saint, Simon Stock, the English Carmelite who had a vision of this occurrence. Two donors kneel in the left middle distance together with Saint Anthony of Padua. Among the other saints can be recognized Clare and Catherine of Siena, Dominic (with a dog holding a candle in his mouth), Nicholas of Tolentino (a sunburst on his habit), Peter Martyr (with a knife in his head), Francis (preaching on the shore to birds), and Raymond of Peñaforte (sailing across the sea with a banner as a sail). The picture seems to date from about 1609, when the feast of the scapular was established.

Scarsellino worked with the Carracci in Bologna as well as with Paolo Veronese in Venice. In certain respects his work, with its emphasis on dark blues and wine-colored reds and its atmospheric effects, forecasts the early style of Guercino.