Saint Didacus of Alcalá Presenting Juan de Herrera's Son to Christ
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6e/San_Diego_di_Alcal%C3%A0_presenta_il_figlio_di_Juan_de_Herrera_a_Ges%C3%B9_-_Annibale_Carracci.png/250px-San_Diego_di_Alcal%C3%A0_presenta_il_figlio_di_Juan_de_Herrera_a_Ges%C3%B9_-_Annibale_Carracci.png)
Saint Didacus of Alcalá Presenting Juan de Herrera's Son to Christ is a c.1606 oil on panel painting by Annibale Carracci, possibly with studio assistance. Probably his last public work, it is now in a chapel of the church of Santa Maria in Monserrato degli Spagnoli in Rome.[1]
History
It was produced as the altarpiece for the Spanish banker Juan Enriquez de Herrera's (1539-1610) family chapel in San Giacomo degli Spagnoli, then Spain's national church in Rome and later rebuilt from scratch to become Nostra Signora del Sacro Cuore. Herrera also commissioned Carracci to decorate the whole chapel, producing designs for frescoes by his students Francesco Albani, Sisto Badalocchio, Giovanni Lanfranco and Domenichino. Work on the chapel started in 1602 as an ex voto for Herrera's son Diego, named after Didacus of Alcalá, both of whom appear in the altarpiece.
The painting and many of the church's other furnishings were taken to Santa Maria in Monserrato when it replaced San Giacomo as the Spanish national church. The Herrera chapel frescoes remained in their original location until the 19th century, when they were divided between the Museu nacional d'art de Catalunya in Barcelona and the Museo del Prado in Madrid.
Autograph status?
Analysis
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/39/Annibale_Carracci_-_Mural_paintings_from_the_Herrera_Chapel_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg/220px-Annibale_Carracci_-_Mural_paintings_from_the_Herrera_Chapel_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
References
- ^ (in Italian) Maria Cristina Terzaghi, Caravaggio, Annibale Carracci, Guido Reni tra le ricevute del banco Herrera & Costa, L'Erma di Bretschneider, Roma, 2007.
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- List of paintings
- The Laughing Youth (1580s)
- The Beaneater (1580–1590)
- Butcher's Shop (1583)
- Crucifixion with Saints (1583)
- Corpse of Christ (1583–1585)
- An Allegory of Truth and Time (1584–1585)
- Baptism of Christ (1585)
- Pietà with Saints Clare, Francis and Mary Magdalene (1585)
- The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine (c. 1585)
- The Vision of Saint Eustace (1585–1586)
- Two Children Teasing a Cat (1587–1588)
- Madonna and Child with Saints (1588)
- Venus with a Satyr and Two Cupids (1588–1590)
- Lamentation (1587–1590)
- Self-Portrait in Profile (1590s)
- Assumption of the Virgin (Madrid; 1590)
- The Virgin Appears to Saint Luke and Saint Catherine (1592)
- Self-Portrait (1593)
- Madonna and Child with Saints (1593)
- Resurrection (1593)
- Madonna and Child in Glory over the City of Bologna (c. 1593)
- Christ and the Samaritan Woman (1593–1594)
- Saint Roch Giving Alms (1587–1595)
- Fishing (before 1595)
- Hunting (before 1595)
- River Landscape (c. 1590)
- Christ and the Canaanite Woman (1594–1595)
- Entombment of Christ (c. 1595)
- Venus, Adonis and Cupid (c. 1595)
- Camerino Farnese
- The Choice of Hercules (1596)
- Christ in Glory with Saints and Odoardo Farnese (c. 1597–1598)
- The Death of Saint Francis (1597–1598)
- Saint Margaret of Antioch (1599)
- Christ Appearing to Saint Anthony Abbot (1598–1600)
- Christ Crowned with Thorns (1598–1600)
- Christ Crowned with Thorns (Bologna) (c. 1598–1600)
- The Madonna and Sleeping Child with the Infant St John the Baptist (c. 1599–1600)
- Pietà (c. 1600)
- The Three Marys at the Tomb (c. 1600)
- Rinaldo and Armida (c. 1601)
- Assumption of the Virgin (Rome; 1600–1601)
- Saint Gregory at Prayer (c. 1600–1602)
- Domine quo vadis? (c. 1602)
- Portable Altarpiece with Pietà and Saints (1603)
- Pietà with Two Angels (c. 1603)
- Sleeping Venus (c. 1603)
- Self-Portrait on an Easel (1603–1604)
- The Martyrdom of St Stephen (c. 1603–1604)
- Portrait of Monsignor Giovanni Battista Agucchi (1604) (disputed)
- Landscape with the Flight into Egypt (c. 1604)
- The Dead Christ Mourned (c. 1604)
- Rest on the Flight into Egypt (c. 1604)
- Danaë (1600–1605)
- Saint Didacus of Alcalá Presenting Juan de Herrera's Son to Christ (c. 1606)
- Pietà with Saint Francis and Saint Mary Magdalene (1602–1607)
- The Loves of the Gods (1608)
- The Birth of the Virgin (1605–1609)