SAINTS GIUSEPPE AND ELIGIO’S ALTAR

The painting was commissioned to the artist Guido Cagnacci from Santarcangelo, on august 1634 by the “Brotherhood of carpenters and blacksmiths”, whose patrons are Saint Joseph and Saint Eligius. The piece was originally designed for the Brotherhood chapel’s altar, in Santa Croce Church and was subsequently moved to Collegiata.

This piece is one of the most valuable examples among the art creations in this region between the 3rd and 4th decades of the 7th century, the years of a great season of naturalism in Rimini, whose most famous artist were Guido Cagnacci and the “Centino”.

Saint Joseph is assisted in his work by the son. Jesus is fixing a nail in two bars disposed like a cross, prelude of his death. Joseph observes him with concern and let him try the attempt even if he was aware of the risk and presage of future pain at their feet there are the carpenter’s tools and the anvil in which it is possible to read Cagnacci’s signature and the date of realization of the work.
Saint Eligius doesn’t seem involved by the presence of Jesus child, but turns his eyes full of patetism towards the dove of the Saint Spirit that descends from the sky in a luminous break .

SOME MORE INFORMATION

San Giuseppe

He is the fair and faithful man that God has put as guardian of His house. His origins link Jesus, messianic king, to David’s descendants. Mary’s husband and putative father, he guides the Sacred Family in the flight and return from Egypt, repeating the journey of Exodus.
The diffusion of his cult is probably of oriental origin but, around the ix century the cult spreads in the West too. In the XV century it enters liturgy.
In 1870 Pious ix proclaim him patron saint of the Universal Church, and Jean XXIII includes him in the Roman Canon.
He is shown like a mature man, often old to highlight the divine paternity of Christ, with a stick and tools of carpenters near him. He is worshipped as a protector of artisans, carpenters and family’s father.

Sant’Eligio

He was born around 588 in Chatelac, near Limoges in a rich family of roman origins. He worked as shoeingsmith and later as a jeweler, was esteemed for his qualities of artisan and for his role as director of the mint and as a royal treasurer. He is told to work for Clotarius and for his successors Clotarius ii and Dagobertus. Only when the bishop Acarius died, Eligius decided to become a priest starting his activity of apostolate among the Germanic pagans and the foundation of many monasteries In 641 he was appointed bishop of Noyon. His name of latin origin probably derives from the verb “eligere”, assuming therefore the significance of elected of God.
Saint Eligius is represented as a goldsmith in his shop, sometimes in bishop dresses.

Guido Cagnacci

The original painter Guido Cagnacci was born in Santarcangelo di Romagna in 1601. He studies in Bologne beside the noble Girolamo Leoni and later he goes to Rome, whose presence is documented between 1621 and 1622. He stayed there twice with the Guercino.
His formation is profoundly inspired by the classicism.
In the years twenties and thirties of Seicento he lives in Rome and works for the churches of the town and the neighbourhood. He is appreciated for the undisputed charm of his works even by private clients.
In a time in which is greatly inspired to the religious sacrality, G. Carracci is able to escape ,in his way, the rules interpreting the charm and beauty according to the inspiration and through the idealized filter of classical perfection of Annibale Carracci in his Roman commissions and the Bolognese classicism. In Bologne, in 1640, he meets the old painter Guido Reni (1575-1642) with his apprentices. He obtains important commissions.
After Reni’s death he is in Forlì for the realization of two large paintings for the decoration of the chapel of Saint Mary of the Fire, the glory of the saints Mercuriale and Valeriano in the dome of Forlì. By the same Cathedral he receives the task of frescoing the dome, a work that will never be finished. After a short presence in Cesenatico and the period of the Venetian experience in 1660 the painter is called in Vienna at Lepold I’s court, where he died in 1663.