20. Francesco Albani (Bologna 1578-1660)

God the Father

 

1604-5

Fresco transferred onto canvas

Barcellona, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Depósito de la Reial Acadèmia de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi

 

The figure of God the Father, which adorned the interior of the lantern, was the first fresco to be painted. Annibale Carracci’s primary biographers Giovanni Pietro Bellori and Carlo Cesare Malvasia confirm that the painter adopted the customary method for fresco painting, starting work on the upper part of the chapel. The sources describe the lantern as a narrow space which made for awkward working conditions, a circumstance that prompted Annibale to yield his place to his pupil. The thick curly hair and wide-open eyes are a typical feature of Albani’s faces and can also be found in other figures in the chapel.

The painting maintains its original wooden structure designed after the fresco’s removal to support it from the back, to keep the canvas taut and to prevent the painted surface from warping.

 

 

The four scenes in the vault are the product of a joint effort by Carracci and Albani, who may have begun all four of them. In the two scenes set in the open air, he began with the sky and continued in successive levels with the landscape, the architecture and the vegetation closest to the figures. In the interior scenes, he painted the elements required for the setting – the altar, the oven, the chapel, the niche, the stairs and so on – and the architectural backdrop with the help of clearly incised lines. Carracci probably painted the more demanding parts such as the heads and hands of the main figures, before finally revising the painting as a whole.

Each fresco was produced in two working days, a fact revealed by the vertical seams in the plaster discovered during restoration.

 

 

18. Annibale Carracci (Bologna 1560 - Roma 1609)

and Francesco Albani (Bologna 1578-1660)

The Miraculous Refreshment

 

1604-5

Fresco transferred onto canvas

Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

 

This scene shows St. Didacus and a friar begging passers-by for help with their sustenance along the road to Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Cádiz), but failing to receive any. Nearing the end of their tether, they suddenly see bread, fish, an orange and a jug of wine appear on the side of road, left there for them by an angel. The splendid heads of the two Franciscans – the best features of the decorative cycle – are unquestionably Carracci’s work.

 

 

19. Annibale Carracci (Bologna 1560 - Roma 1609)
and Francesco Albani (Bologna 1578-1660)

Saint Didacus saving the Boy Asleep in the Oven

 

1604-5

Fresco transferred onto canvas

Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

 

This episode tells the story of a boy who, fearing that his mother would punish him for coming home late, hid in the bread oven and promptly fell asleep. The next morning his mother lit the oven without noticing anything. Waking up amid the flames, the boy began to weep while his terrified mother pleaded for help. St. Didacus heard her and told her to pray to the Virgin of Seville Cathedral. The miracle was thus accomplished and the boy was saved.

 

 

16. Annibale Carracci (Bologna 1560 - Roma 1609)

and Francesco Albani (Bologna 1578-1660)

Saint Didacus receiving Alms

 

1604-5

Fresco transferred onto canvas

Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

 

This is the first important episode in the saint’s life. Answering God’s call, Didacus withdrew to live with a hermit. The two men lived on alms and on the money they earnt from carving tools in wood. The head and hand of the knight offering Didacus a coin and the head of the saint are outlined in a different plaster from the rest of the fresco, showing that these important details in the fresco were painted by Carracci alone.

 

 

17. Annibale Carracci (Bologna 1560 - Roma 1609)
and Francesco Albani (Bologna 1578-1660)

Saint Didacus receiving the Franciscan Habit

 

1604-5

Fresco transferred onto canvas

Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

 

The subject of the painting is not a miracle but ione of the most significant events in St. Didacus’s life, when he joined the Observant branch of the Order of Friars Minor in the convent of San Francisco de la Arruzafa in Córdoba.