Saint Roch Visiting the Sick, a painting by Baroque master Martino Altomonte. After many years of being obscured, the painting’s remarkable artistic values have been uncovered through careful conservation. Now, we can directly experience one of the best Baroque paintings held in Polish collections, the masterpiece normally separated from the world’s hustle and bustle in the quiet of a Cracow monastery.
HISTORY OF THE PAINTING
Martino Altomonte, court painter of King Jan III, moved to Vienna permanently after the King’s death, and enjoyed a stunning career there. 1719 saw Elżbieta Sieniawska, one of the most powerful women in the early 18th-century Commonwealth, commission Altomonte to provide paintings for the Lviv Capuchin Church. The Capuchins had been brought to the Commonwealth by King Jan III, who also founded their monastery and church in Warsaw. It seems that Sieniawska took up the patronage that had been exerted by the King. Her 1720 purchase and rapid restoration of Wilanów is certainly evidence in favour of that theory. Most of the donation to the Lviv Capuchins perished. Martino Altomonte’s painting – the displayed Baroque masterpiece – is one of the few survivors.
The painting suffered a dramatic fate. It miraculously survived the 1833 fire of the (already Franciscan) church, but it was not until two years had passed that it was restored. Afterwards, conservation efforts were not taken for a hundred years. On 26 April 1946, the Franciscans were forced to leave the Lviv monastery. They transported some of the church furnishings, including the Altomonte, to Cracow. In 2019, the painting was transferred from the Franciscan Monastery in Cracow to the painting conservation studio at the Museum of King Jan III’s Palace at Wilanów.
Its condition was evaluated as poor, and much in need of comprehensive conservation treatment. The painting’s surface was uneven, partially deformed, and some parts of the canvas were torn and patched up. The paint layer was slowly starting to flake... Darkened varnish, clumsy restorative paintwork and layers of decades-old dirt had obscured the painting’s composition. Conservation was mainly aimed at halting painting degradation, strengthening its support, and removing the coating of dirt, the yellowed varnish and the overpainting that affected the painting’s composition and artistic value.
Restoring original colouring, and bringing out the composition fragments that had been invisible or barely visible prior to conservation treatment (especially in the lower part of the canvas) shed new light onto Martino Altomonte’s painting technique. Just take a closer look at the recovered artist’s signature close to the painting’s left edge, right under the female figure with her head propped up on her hand: “[Mar]tinus Altomonte | Viene An[n]o | 1719” (Martino Altomonte, Vienna, the year of 1719).
PAINTING DESCRIPTION AND INTERPRETATION
The centre of the painting is occupied by Saint Roch, who is visiting the sick. One of the ailing, a boldly foreshortened young man in the foreground, seems to be on the precipice of death. As she looks to St. Roch in hope for a miraculous healing, a woman weeps for the withering man. At the right edge of the painting, a man in a red beret lifts the lifeless, grey body of a woman. A meaningful contrast with the full-of-life, plump child cuddling up to her. A closer look reveals a rosary wrapped around her fingers. Is she in with a chance of being healed as well?
The background depicts an infirmary, with curtains and canopies separating the sick. We bear witness to a tragic scene: two men struggle to lift a dead body. A burning cauldron stands at the hospital's entrance. The flame is there to cleanse the air of poisonous vapours. Still, it is hard to dismiss the impression that the smoke also symbolises the fragility and volatility of human life.
The people of the early 18th century were well aware of the fragility and volatility of life, as disease and pestilence were commonplace. Treatments and remedies proved ineffective, hence they sought intercession and divine care, and Saint Roch was the saint they invoked against a plague.
Roch lived in the 14th century. He was born in France, but tended to and healed the sick in Italy. When he fell ill with the Plague himself, he withdrew into the forest, where a loyal dog supplied him with food. Roch was miraculously cured and decided on returning to his homeland. Taken for a spy at the French-Italian border, he was seized and imprisoned. Unrecognised, he died in jail at a young age.
Naturally, Saint Roch is the painting's central figure. His faith, calmness and trust are in telling contrast with the tragedy depicted in the painting. He visits the sick, whose only hope is faith. Maybe that is why the lifeless body of man in the background is being carried out of the hospital: he died, because he was too far away from Saint Roch or – metaphorically – beyond the reach of God’s grace. The two angels in the upper part of the painting indicate that the patron is on a God-sent mission, while the monumental architecture resembling ancient buildings caters for the scene’s universality.
Martino Altomonte’s painting is an outstanding work. The artist masterfully employs light to emphasise the central and most important part of the scene: the interaction between the calm, faithful Saint and the body of the dying man. This is where we should affix our gaze, as we might be only a moment away from witnessing the miracle of healing. Altomonte brilliantly puts together colours, and applies paint with a sure touch and virtuosity. Even painting quite complex figures, like Saint Roch's crucifix and the body of the man in the background, is only a matter of a few brushstrokes.
At the same time, the artist did not feel bound by his first composition and clearly introduced some changes along the way. The arcade behind the angel figure should be supported by a sturdy pillar. Yet the support is barely visible, and is rather symbolically sketched in the distant background. It seems that Altomonte came up with the perfect idea of replacing the initial pillar with the two men heaving a corpse, a new scene vital to the painting's analysis. To make room for this new element, Altomonte had to rearrange the hospital tents. Originally, they were lined up one next to the other – as indicated by the outline of the “additional” canopy. The unsupported arcade became an abstract element, cleverly disguised with the brown drapery. This alteration is hardly conspicuous without a very careful look. Such is the true secret behind painting mastery: direct viewers’ attention to what they should see, and away from what need not be noticed.