Saint Dominic in Penitence

ca. 1607
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 620
Tarchiani’s painting transforms a troubling subject—the thirteenth-century founder of the Dominican order flagellating himself—into a serene, meditative composition. With the attention of a still-life painter, he isolated a series of captivating motifs, including the linearity of the altarpiece viewed in profile contrasted with the soft folds of Dominic’s partially discarded robes. Although trained in the academic tradition of late sixteenth-century Florentine art, Tarchiani made two prolonged visits to Rome, where he studied the work of Caravaggio and Orazio Gentileschi. Between 1615 and 1616 he was employed on the same project as Orazio’s famous daughter, Artemisia Gentileschi, who arrived in Florence in 1613.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Saint Dominic in Penitence
  • Artist: Filippo Tarchiani (Italian, Castello 1576–1645 Florence)
  • Date: ca. 1607
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 52 x 43 in. (132.1 x 109.2 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Gift of Brian J. Brille, 2015
  • Object Number: 2015.761
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

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