Bolognese school; XVII century.

Bolognese school; XVII century.
"Saint Dominic in Soriano".
Oil on copper.
It has Repainting and restorations on the pictorial surface.
It has slight damage to the frame.
Measurements: 23 x 17,5 cm; 28,5 x 23 cm (frame).
The work that concerns us deals with the miracle of Saint Dominic in the Dominican convent of Soriano Calabro in Italy. The scene takes place in an interior with the Virgin holding the portrait of the saint, while Saint Catherine (identified with the distaff, the sword and the palm of martyrdom) rises imposingly beside her. The Magdalene and a religious, who appears kneeling, close the scene on the left side. The work is inspired by the homonymous canvas by Fray Juan Bautista Maíno, today kept in the Prado Museum, dated around 1629. According to the art gallery itself, "The fame of this representation associated with the name of Maíno spread from a painting, now lost, placed in a chapel of the convent of Santo Tomás in Madrid in May 1629. The Dominicans spread the legend of Soriano presenting as miraculous not only the original image but also its copies. These miraculous powers associated with the cult of Santo Domingo in Soriano explain the immediate diffusion in copies and variants of Maíno's composition (Text extracted from Carlos Varona, M. C. de, in: Juan Bautista Maíno: 1581-1649, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2009, pp. 172-176)".
This piece is framed within the style of the Bolognese Baroque school, which takes its references from Greco-Latin classicism and the Renaissance of the early sixteenth century, especially the Venetian. His style is based on the study of natural truth, of reality as a model, although in a more aesthetic and idealized way than Caravaggio, in a purely classical sense. This school will therefore be the basis of the classicist baroque, and starts from the figure of the Carracci: Annibale, his brother Agostino and his cousin Ludovico, creators of the Accademia degli Incamminati (1582), with which they tried to renew the art of the time, predominantly mannerist, which they considered already decadent. Annibale will be the main creator of the new style, while Agostino will be important for the diffusion of the models, as an engraver, and Ludovico will be the main teacher of the academy.