Saint Gregory at Prayer

Saint Gregory at Prayer was an oil-on-panel painting by

Gregory the Great

's life when an image of the Virgin Mary spoke to him while he prayed before it.

It was commissioned by cardinal

San Gregorio al Celio in Rome. It can thus only date to between his becoming commendatory abbot of the Camaldolese monastery at San Gregorio al Celio in 1600 and his death in 1602. The saint is shown looking towards a wall of the chapel on which then hung an icon of the Virgin Mary, an overlapping of imaginary and real space which involves the viewer in the space and time of the event shown in the painting and made the painting one of the earliest examples of Baroque illusionism.^[1]

The work was seized by French occupying forces in 1798 – its gap at San Gregorio has been filled by an anonymous copy of the work. However, whilst it was en route to Paris,

London Blitz.^[2]

Related works

Annibale Carracci, St. Gregory prays for the souls in purgatory, Chatsworth House. Preparatory drawing, which Annibale only partly followed
Saint Gregory at Prayer, the anonymous copy that today occupies the altar of the church of
San Gregorio al Celio
where the lost painting by Annibale was originally located

References

^ John Rupert Martin, 'Space and time in baroque art', in Princeton Alumni Weekly, 1 March 1976, p. 19.
^ (in Italian) Anna Maria Pedrocchi, San Gregorio al Celio: storia di una abbazia, Rome, 1993, p. 177.

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[1] John Rupert Martin, 'Space and time in baroque art', in Princeton Alumni Weekly, 1 March 1976, p. 19.

[2] (in Italian) Anna Maria Pedrocchi, San Gregorio al Celio: storia di una abbazia, Rome, 1993, p. 177.

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