Saint Filippo Benizzi

Girolamo Romanino painted this Saint Filippo Benizzi for a Brescian institution around 1520, depicting the thirteenth-century Florentine general of the Servite order whose popular cult spread across northern Italy. Filippo Benizzi, who died in 1285 and was canonized in 1671, was particularly venerated by the Servite order, and his image appeared in Servite church decorations across Italy. Romanino's bold, confident figure style gives the saint physical presence and spiritual authority appropriate to a major institutional commission. The standard formula of the standing saint—in religious habit, holding attributes of office or martyrdom—is elevated by Romanino's ability to individualize even formulaic sacred figures through his characteristic combination of warm coloring and confident gesture.

The panel shows Romanino's bold manner with the physical dignity and expressive characterization that make his individual saint images among the most memorable in Italian painting.