01 Works, RELIGIOUS ART - Interpretation of the Bible! by the Old Masters, With Footnotes - 78

Alessandro Tiarini, BOLOGNA 1577 - 1668

SAINT DOMINIC AND AN ANGEL

Oil on canvas

41 5/8  by 54 5/8  in.; 105.5 by 138.7 cm.

Private collection

Saint Dominic, the founding father of the Dominican mendicant order of friars in 1215, is also attributed with instituting the use of the rosary after an apparition of the Virgin Mary. In Tiarini's present depiction he is shown preaching from the pulpit, the light thrusting him forward from the darkness around him, his golden dish appropriately filled with roses and rosary beads. More on this painting

Saint Dominic (1170-1221) was the founder of the Order of Preachers, also called Dominican, or Black Friars. He is shown here with his usual attributes of a book (the Gospels) and a lily (chastity).  In addition, he is accompanied by a black and white dog with a flaming torch in its mouth, an allusion to the story that his mother dreamed her unborn child was a dog that would set the world on fire with the Word of God.  It also has been suggested that the dog represents a pun on Dominicanus, the word for a Dominican friar, and Domini canis, "dog of the Lord." More on Saint Dominic 

Alessandro Tiarini (20 March 1577 – 8 February 1668) was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School. He was born in Bologna. He was the godson of painter Lavinia Fontana and initially apprenticed in Bologna under her father Prospero Fontana, and subsequently with Bartolomeo Cesi. He was not inducted into the Carracci Academy. Forced to flee from Bologna, due to what Malvasia and Amorini describe as a quarrel leading to the death of the other party, he moved to Florence, where he painted frescoes, façade decorations, and altarpieces (1599–1606). In Florence, he mainly worked under Domenico Passignano, but also Bernardino Poccetti and Jacopo da Empoli.

He was lured back to Bologna and Reggio Emilia, by Ludovico Carracci. Tiarini died in Bologna. His closest pupils were Francesco Carbone and Luca Barbieri. More on Alessandro Tiarini

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