Saint or Ecclesiastic Figure Administering Communion
1820â1850
Classification
Drawing
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Museum purchase through gift of various donors and from Eleanor G. Hewitt Fund
Accession Number
1938-88-8350
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
Fortunato Duranti, Italian artist (1787–1863), created *Saint or Ecclesiastic Administering Communion* between 1820 and 1850. This captures a solemn religious moment, depicting a saintly or clerical figure performing the Eucharist, a central sacrament in Catholicism symbolizing Christ's Last Supper. Produced during Italy's Romantic era, when artists often blended neoclassical precision with emotional depth, Duranti's reflects the era's fascination with spiritual devotion and ecclesiastical grandeur amid the Risorgimento's cultural upheavals. As a drawing—though its exact medium remains uniden...