Corrado Giaquinto

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690) is rarely seen in art for she was only beatified in 1864 and canonised in 1920, under Pope Benedict XV. She suffered a crippling disorder from which she was healed after a vision of the Blessed Virgin, and subsequently became a nun. In 1672 she joined the Order of the Visitation; an Order which had been founded in 1610 in Annecy by St. Francis de Sales, Bishop of Geneva. She popularised the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and His bleeding heart is chosen by Giaquinto as her symbol in this painting. The function of the work is not entirely clear though the iconic imagery and positioning of the saint would both suggest that it originally stood on the altar of a private devotional chapel belonging to a devotee of the Sacred Heart.

Dr. Irene Cioffi dates the present work to circa 1765, soon after Giaquinto's return to Naples from Spain. The devotion of the Sacred Heart was not officially sanctioned in the liturgical observations of the Catholic Church until 1765, when Pope Clement XIII authorised the Mass and Office of the Feast, and it is likely that Giaquinto's painting was commissioned to coincide with this event. The dating also makes sense on stylistic grounds for the painting compares well with Giaquinto's series illustrating Scenes from the Life of the Virgin executed for the sacristy of the royal church of San Luigi di Palazzo in Naples, now in various American museums (The Purification of the Temple is in Cambridge (Mass.), Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge; The Visitation in Montreal, Museum of Fine Arts; The Marriage of the Virgin in Pasadena, Norton Simon Museum of Art; and The Rest on the Flight into Egypt in Detroit, Institute of Arts). Giaquinto returned to Naples in 1762 after almost a decade of prolific activity at the Spanish royal court, having been appointed First Painter to Charles III, Director of the Academia de San Fernando, and Director of the Royal Tapestry Factory of Santa Barbara in Madrid. This canvas exemplifies Giaquinto's painting technique perfectly: the pearly tones of the saint and her drapery, executed with more thinly-applied paint, contrast with the richer tones of her setting and the impasto with which Giaquinto has painted her jewelled halo and the embroidery on the curtains. His dazzling brushwork is especially evident in the glowing vision of the Sacred Heart, which is skilfully rendered in the transparent layers of delicately coloured glazes that are the hallmark of Giaquinto's mature style.