Three Lucchese saints Sts Nicholas Tolentino, Nicholas of Bari interceding with the Virgin for the victims of the plague
1650–1700
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
sheet: 10 9/16 x 7 3/16 in. (26.8 x 18.2 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1951
Accession Number
51.501.4241
Art Historical Context
This etching, created between 1650 and 1700 and attributed to Pietro Testa or an anonymous 17th-century artist, captures a poignant moment of divine intercession. It shows Saints Nicholas of Tolentino and Nicholas of Bari, both associated with Lucca, pleading with the Virgin Mary on behalf of plague victims. Such imagery reflects the deep anxieties of the Baroque era, when recurring outbreaks of disease prompted communities to seek spiritual protection through art that blended faith and hope. As a print medium, etching allowed this devotional scene to reach a broad audience beyond church wall...
About the Artist
Pietro Testa|Anonymous, 17th century · 1612–1650
Pietro Testa was born in Lucca in 1612 and, in accordance with the conventions of Italian artistic training, made his way to Rome while still young. There he studied under two of the leading painters of the early seventeenth century: Domenichino, from whom he absorbed a taste for classical restraint and narrative clarity, and Pietro da Cortona, whose more exuberant Baroque manner offered a contras...