Pope Gregory XVI Visiting the Church of San Benedetto at Subiaco
Jean-François Montessuy
1843 · Oil on canvas · European Paintings
The magnificently frescoed monastery of San Benedetto, about thirty miles east of Rome at Subiaco, was built during the Middle Ages as a pilgrimage site. The presence of the reigning pontiff during a visit of 1834 imparts the gravity of contemporary history to this picturesque costume piece. He is shown emerging from the Sacro Speco, the cave venerated as the one in which Saint Benedict lived as a hermit about A.D. 500. Montessuy sought to establish his reputation with this, his first such masterwork, at the Paris Salon of 1844. There is no more complete expression of the penchant among Lyonnais artists for surface description than this painting.
- Artist
- Jean-François Montessuy
- Date
- 1843
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Department
- European Paintings
- Credit line
- The Whitney Collection, Gift of Wheelock Whitney III, and Purchase, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. McVeigh, by exchange, 2003
