Completed Continental European before 1800 7 Any information on the origins of this painting of Saint Thomas Aquinas?

Saint Thomas Aquinas
Topic: Other

I wonder if anybody has any information about the origins of this painting of St Thomas Aquinas: painter, place of origin, century of execution, other versions of the same composition.

There is a NICE paintings entry on it here:
http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=83341
which includes the provenance and first stabs at attribution.

Reason for asking is that I'm prioritising paintings for cleaning and am not sure where to put this one. I thought it would be possible to find other versions of it, but have not done so so far. Renderings of the same subject by Vaenius and Santi di Tito are different.

William Schupbach, Wellcome Library
http://www.thepcf.org.uk/artdetective/media/_source/aquinas.jpg

Wellcome Collection, Entry reviewed by Art UK

Completed, Outcome

This discussion is now closed. It was concluded that this painting is almost certainly Italian, probably of the first half of the seventeenth century. Art UK’s record has been updated and the changes will appear in due course.

Thank you to all for participating in this discussion. To those viewing this discussion for the first time, please see below for all comments that led to this conclusion.

6 comments

Laura Jacobus,

I'd have gone for Italian 17thC myself, but I'm a medieval/renaissance person so my view isn't worth much. It's hard to say from this image but the face looks repainted (damaged? altered to reflect the features of someone) but otherwise the quality looks very good (again, hard to say from the image)

Laura Jacobus,

I hadn't finished my comments but paused to sign in and found they'd be sent. The only other thing that struck me was that the Christ is surprisingly skinny for an Italian Christ, and this may ring bells for someone other than me, but did get me wondering about whether it could be Spanish instead of Italian. In any case, if you are concerned with priorities, it strikes me as potentially high quality and well worth cleaning.

Rannheid Sharma,

What strikes me is that the ears are very far back, and set quite low. Does this reflect a person or a style?

Martin Hopkinson,

I, like Laura, suspect that it is Spanish. The drapery at the left looks more Spanish than Italian. There are many engravings of this saint, and one of these might provide a definitive answer

There is a Mexican 17th century artist Antonio Rodriguez (1636-1691), whose compositions bear some relation to the Wellcome's St Thomas Aquinas.

See his St. Thomas Aquinas, apparently only visible at http://www.allposters.com/-sp/St-Thomas-Aquinas-Writing-before-the-Crucifix-Posters_i7683099_.htm

and St Augustine at
http://munal.emuseum.com/objects/178/san-agustin?ctx=e3060ba9-363f-4396-a17c-49137cff3457&idx=15

Both are in the Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico.

I am not suggesting Rodriguez as the artist, but provincial Spanish and 17th century indeed seem like the right area to be looking in.