Vocation of St. Aloysius Gonzaga

ARTIST: Museum Religious Art Classics

ARTWORK NARRATIVE:

Artist: Giovanni Francesco Barbieri – c. 1650

This altarpiece was commissioned for the Theatine church of Guastalla in 1650 by Duke Ferrante III Gonzaga (1618–1678) in celebration of Luigi Gonzaga (born 1568), who resigned his inherited title of marquis and joined the Jesuit order in Rome in 1585. He devoted himself to the care of the poor until he died of the plague in 1591. He was beatified in 1621 and canonized in 1726. In Guercino’s painting, an angel holds over the saint’s head a wreath that replaces the crown, symbolizing the marquisate, that has been cast aside on the ground next to a sheaf of lilies representing chastity.

His feast day is June 21.

Additional Items Our Customers Like