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The Seven Works of Mercy

  • Napoli, Italia
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Duration
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Type
Arte, Teatri e Musei
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Hosted in
Inglese

Description

It is preserved at Pio Monte della Misericordia in Naples. The composition depicts crammed into a large altarpiece the "Seven Works of Mercy": the six enunciated by Christ in Matthew's Gospel with the addition of the burial of the dead, which, following the recent famine, had become a major problem for the city of Naples . On the right, the "Burying the Dead" is depicted with the carrying of a corpse whose feet are only visible, by a deacon holding a torch and a bearer. "Visiting the imprisoned" and "Feeding the hungry" are concentrated in a single episode: that of Cimmon who, condemned to death by starvation in prison, was fed from the breasts of his daughter Pero, and for this he was pardoned by the magistrates who had a temple dedicated to the Goddess Piety erected on the same site. The Basilica of St. Nicholas in Prison was later built on the same site. On the left side others the "Dressing the Unclothed" with a figure of a young knight, a St. Martin of Tours giving a gift of his cloak to a man with a Michelangelo-like pose seen from behind, to the same saint is linked the figure of the cripple at the bottom , this episode too is a reference to the hagiography of Martin, an emblem of the "Cure the Sick." The man drinking from a donkey jaw is Samson , put there to represent "Giving drink to the thirsty" , in the desert he drank water made to flow miraculously by the Lord. Finally "Accommodating pilgrims" summed up by two figures: the man on the far left pointing outward, and another who by the attribute of the shell on his hat (a sign of pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela) is easily identified with a pilgrim.

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