Saints Cosmas and Damian Caring for the Sick
c. 1736
Medium
etching with engraving on laid paper
Dimensions
plate: 38.2 x 26 cm (15 1/16 x 10 1/4 in.) sheet: 39.6 x 27.4 cm (15 9/16 x 10 13/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
Accession Number
2000.35.1
Art Historical Context
In the grand tradition of Baroque religious art, Paul Troger *Saints Cosmas and Caring for the Sick*c. 1736) captures a moment of divine compassion. Troger, a leading Austrian painter and draftsman of the 18th century, was renowned for his dramatic frescoes in monasteries like Melk Abbey, dynamic movement with emotional depth. Here, the twin saints—patron protectors of physicians and pharmacists—are depicted tenderly ministering to the ill, evoking the Counter-Reformation's emphasis on miraculous healing and charitable piety during a time when plague and disease loomed large in Europe. This w...
About the Artist
Paul Troger
Austrian painter. Comment on works: Religious