This canvas was likely painted during the 1610s by the artist Andrea Michieli, who is commonly referred to as il Vicentino, owing to his birthplace in Vicenza on the Venetian mainland. A pupil of Giovanni Battista Maganza, Vicentino arrived in Venice in the early 1570s and swiftly garnered the attention of the Serenissima, securing commissions to paint a series of monumental historical canvases in the Palazzo Ducale. Notably, among his works is the highly acclaimed Entrance of King Henry III of France at San Nicolò al Lido in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio, which was restored by Save Venice in 1978. By the time he commenced his work at San Sebastiano, Vicentino had achieved such renown that the art critic Marco Boschini, writing in 1674, included him in the esteemed company of the late Renaissance Venice’s most prominent painters, known as the Sette Maniere artists.

The painting portrays a scene in which a group of five monks comes to the aid of three destitute beggars, who lie on the ground with outstretched arms, clearly too weak or unwell to stand. The setting resembles a temple-like structure, possibly the columned porch of a convent. In the background, a large stone archway reveals a church in the distance, surrounded by trees in a hilly landscape. The subject of the painting has been subject to various interpretations. According to one prevailing theory, Vicentino’s canvas represents Saint Jerome greeting the thieves who had stolen his donkey—a lesser-known episode from Jerome’s life, seldom depicted in Venice. However, this hypothesis appears somewhat speculative, lacking a solid basis in iconographic analysis, and primarily relying on the fact that in San Sebastiano, Vicentino also painted the preceding and more renowned episode of Saint Jerome and the Lion.

An alternative theory interprets the subject matter as the “Clothing of the Naked,” one of the Seven Acts of Mercy. This identification, while somewhat broad, seems to align with the depicted action in the painting, notably the central figure, an elderly monk, who is shown covering one of the bare-chested beggars. Building on this perspective, another theory suggests that the painting represents an act of mercy performed by Blessed Pietro Gambacorta of Pisa, the co-founder of the Poor Hermits of Saint Jerome, the Hieronymite monks who established the church of San Sebastiano in the late 14th century. Several clues support this interpretation. Firstly, the five monks in the painting appear to be wearing the distinctive habit of the Hieronymite order—a brown hooded cowl and a black waist girdle. This attire is consistent with what Lorenzo Lotto depicted in his Portrait of Fra’ Gregorio Belo, Prior of the Hieronymite friary in Padua (1526) and Treviso (1549). Secondly, the central monk in Vicentino’s canvas bears a striking resemblance to Gambacorta, who was often depicted as an elderly figure in a brown cassock and a flowing white beard. An example of this portrayal can be found in Federico Bencovich’s small altarpiece in San Sebastiano (circa 1726). Considering these observations, it is plausible to argue that the painting represents Blessed Peter Gambacorta Clothing the Poor and may have originally been created for the convent of San Sebastiano, where Gambacorta is believed to have passed away in 1435.

Although covered by a thick layer of surface dirt and oxidized varnish, this canvas should be regarded as exemplary of the artist at his best, at least as far as portraiture is concerned. Indeed, scholars have pointed out how the portrait of the second monk from the left is one of the most impressive examples of Vicentino’s mature style. The perspectival and anatomical rendering of the tree beggars are also remarkable, and quite ingenious is the way their bodies are disposed in a graceful compositional contrapposto that suggests both variety and resemblance. Conservation treatment should enhance the visual quality of the painting and help shed light on a number of stylistic and iconographic issues.

The painting’s surface was covered with a thick layer of dirt and grime, as well as oxidized varnish and some overpainting from previous restoration attempts, obstructing the original details and colors. The conservation process involved removing and thinning these non-original surface layers, whereas flaking paint was stabilized and losses filled with removable conservation paints. A final layer of protective varnish was applied at the end of the treatment.

Andrea Michieli, called “il Vicentino” (c. 1539 – c. 1617) [attr.]
Blessed Peter Gambacorta Clothing the Poor
c. 1610s, oil on canvas
190 x 110 cm

Giordano, Silvano. Gambacorta, Pietro. In Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 52. Rome: Istituto della enciclopedia italiana, 1999, pp. 22-24. Link to the article

Piai, Andrea. Altri incontri con Andrea Vicentino. “Verona Illustrata,” 28, 2015, pp. 97-114. Link to the article

Salomon, Xavier, Davide Gasparotto, Gabriele Matino, and Melissa Conn. The Church of San Sebastiano in Venice: A Guide, Venice: Marsilio, 2024.

Tagliaferro, Giorgio. Michieli, Andrea. In Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 74. Rome: Istituto della enciclopedia italiana, 2010, pp. 332-336. Link to the article

de Voragine, Jacobus. The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints. William G. Ryan, trans. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2 vols.