Saint Dominic in Penitence

Filippo Tarchiani

ca. 1607 · Oil on canvas · European Paintings

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.

Artist

Filippo Tarchiani

Date

ca. 1607

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Gift of Brian J. Brille, 2015