Andalusian school, 18th century

Andalusian School, XVIII century
"Saint Francis of Paula".
Polychrome carving and gilded in fine gold.
Measurements: 45 x 25 x 17 cm.

Work of devotional character with the representation of San Francisco de Paula in prayerful attitude. With his bare feet on a pedestal that simulates a cumulus of clouds, the celestial ascension of the saint is represented, whose face and gesture transmits ecstatic rapture. The composition is dynamic, resolved in baroque style. Saint Francis of Paola (Calabria, Italy, 1416-Tours, France, 1507) was a hermit and founder of the Order of Minims and a saint of the Catholic Church in the Italian region of Calabria. Legend has it that St. Francis became seriously ill of the eyes, reason why his parents entrusted themselves to St. Francis, curing their son's eyes. To be grateful for the miracle, at the age of fourteen he went on pilgrimage to Assisi, thus becoming a hermit. For five years he withdrew to the mountain, feeding only on water and wild herbs, sleeping on the hard ground, with a stone as a pillow. He was canonized in 1519, only 12 years after his death, during the pontificate of Pope Leo X. In the early years of the 16th century, the Order of the Minims entered Spain, acquiring great diffusion due to the values of Franciscan preaching that they spread, which, linked to the recent canonization of the saint and his way of life and poverty, had a very strong influence among the Spanish Christian population.