God the Father with Two Saints is a 1477–78 fresco by Perugino. It was painted for the church of San Francesco in Deruta and shows the town at its base, along with the inscription "DECRETO PUBBLICO DFCTA / ANNO D[OMI]NI MCCCCLXXV[II/III]". This shows it was an ex voto for the end of the plague in 1476 - the two saints are St Roch (right) and St Romanus (left), both invoked against the plague.[1]
It comes from the painter's initial period back in Umbria after returning following his training under Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence. It reuses elements from his previous work - St Roch's head is similar to that of Balthazar in Adoration of the Magi, whilst the pavement pattern is from The Miracle of the Stillborn Child.
Bibliography
edit- ^ DesOrmeaux, Anna Louise (May 2007). The Black Death and Its Effect on Fourteenth- and Fifteenth-Century Art (Thesis). Louisiana State University. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
- Vittoria Garibaldi, Perugino, in Pittori del Rinascimento, Scala, Florence, 2004 (ISBN 888117099X)