The Pala della Peste (Altarpiece of the Bubonic Plague) or Pallione del Voto is an oil on silk Baroque-style altarpiece by Guido Reni depicts the Madonna and Child in Glory with the Patron Saints of Bologna: Petronius, Francis, Ignatius, Francis Xavier, Proculus of Bologna, and Florian. [1]
The altarpiece was painted in 1631–1632 as an ex voto after the ebbing of the plague epidemic in 1630 in Bologna. [2] The altarpiece was in the past paraded yearly in a formal procession from the Palazzo Pubblico to the church of San Domenico, Bologna.
The structure of the painting follows the formal arrangement, exemplified by a late 16th-century canvas by Annibale Carraci in the Pinacoteca of Bologna. [3] The Madonna and child are in the superior portion. The infant blesses with his right hand, while the left hand holds a flowering sprig. Around the couple, cherubim are active draping flowers, holding rosaries and scapulars, and crowning the Virgin with a crown of stars. The virgin is depicted with many of the attributes of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, though instead of an upward concave cresent moon, she stands on an inverted rainbow, sign of the peace the waning of the plague brings.
In the scene below, the seven saints implore for Bologna, depicted at the bottom center. Charles Borromeo, recently canonized, at the far left was known for his work among the pestilent of Milan. Beside him standing is St Proculus of Bologna, a martyred Roman soldier, holding a sword and palm leaf (symbol of martyrdom). Kneeling below Proculus is: St Petronius with a bishop's mitre at his feet. Across the canvas, the armored St Florian holds a halberd and palm leaf. St Francis in a cassock, and to the right are two Jesuit saints, Francis Xavier with the palm leaf pointing to him, and the founder of the order St Ignatius of Loyola. St Dominic kneels on the right holding the lily of purity. Finally down below under a ominous grey sky is the city of Bologna with its towers. Outside the city wall are undertakers ferrying bodies for burial, while individuals at the wall clamor or lament.
The style recalls the earthy coloring of Ludovico Carracci. The work is now in the Pinacoteca of Bologna, which also has a 1616 ex voto Madonna by Reni. The Palla delle Peste is described by Viardot as "an excellent specimen of the pale coloring which Guido had adopted". [4]
Agostino Carracci was an Italian painter, printmaker, tapestry designer, and art teacher. He was, together with his brother, Annibale Carracci, and cousin, Ludovico Carracci, one of the founders of the Accademia degli Incamminati in Bologna. Intended to devise alternatives to the Mannerist style favored in the preceding decades, this teaching academy helped propel painters of the School of Bologna to prominence.
Annibale Carracci was an Italian painter and instructor, active in Bologna and later in Rome. Along with his brother and cousin, Annibale was one of the progenitors, if not founders of a leading strand of the Baroque style, borrowing from styles from both north and south of their native city, and aspiring for a return to classical monumentality, but adding a more vital dynamism. Painters working under Annibale at the gallery of the Palazzo Farnese would be highly influential in Roman painting for decades.
Guido Reni was an Italian Baroque painter, although his works showed a classical manner, similar to Simon Vouet, Nicolas Poussin, and Philippe de Champaigne. He painted primarily religious works, but also mythological and allegorical subjects. Active in Rome, Naples, and his native Bologna, he became the dominant figure in the Bolognese School that emerged under the influence of the Carracci.
Domenico Zampieri, known by the diminutive Domenichino after his shortness, was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School of painters.
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Giacomo Raibolini, also called Giacomo Francia or Jacopo Francia, was an Italian painter and engraver of the Renaissance period.
The National Art Gallery of Bologna is a museum in Bologna, Italy. It is located in the former Saint Ignatius Jesuit novitiate of the city's University district, and inside the same building that houses the Academy of Fine Arts. The museum offers a wide collection of Emilian paintings from the 13th to the 18th century and other fundamental works by artists who were in some way related to the city.
Jacopo Zoboli, also known by Giacomo, was an Italian painter of the Baroque style.
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Santa Maria Lacrimosa degli Alemanni is a small church and sanctuary, built during the Renaissance era, and located on Via Mazzini number 65 in central Bologna, Italy.
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Giovanni Battista Ramenghi was an Italian painter. He is sometimes known as Bagnacavallo junior or Bagnacavallo the Younger to distinguish him from his father Bartolomeo Ramenghi.
Crucifixion with Saints or Crucifixion with Mourners and Saints Bernardino of Siena, Francis of Assisi and Petronius is a 1583 oil on canvas, now in the church of Santa Maria della Carità in Bologna. The work was originally sited in the Macchiavelli chapel in San Nicolò di San Felice, Bologna, next to Santa Maria della Carità, which was destroyed by bombing during the Second World War. It was then temporarily moved to the Soprintendenza di Bologna and finally to its current home.
The Madonna dei Bargellini, also known as the Pala Bargellini is an oil on canvas altarpiece by Ludovico Carracci, from 1588. It is held in the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna.