Giovanni Lanfranco, Italian, 1582-1647
Title: The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes
Date: 1624-1625
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
229 x 426 cm
Credit Line: Purchased, 1856
Object Number: NGI.72
DescriptionOne of the major reaffirmations of the sixteenth-century Counter Reformation was the real presence of the body of Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist. Numerous artistic campaigns for altarpieces and chapels were dedicated to this dogma of the Catholic Church. Among the most ambitious of these programmes was the redecoration of the Sacrament Chapel of the Basilica of San Paolo Fuori le Mura (Saint-Paul’s-Outside-the-Walls) in Rome. This commission was entrusted to Giovanni Lanfranco in the early 1620s. This cycle of pictures is considered one of the artist’s most successful achievements. The National Gallery of Ireland have two paintings by Lanfranco from this series in its collection: The Miracle of Loaves and Fishes and The Last Supper.
According to the Gospels, having come upon a hoard of followers, Christ healed their sick and miraculously fed thousands with just a few loaves of bread and fish. The loaves in this scene foreshadow the sacramental bread of Communion. The colourful, pastel palette and chalky brushstrokes used here reflect the technique of Lanfranco’s wall paintings, a reminder of his reputation as one of the most productive and inventive frescoists of the century. The large-scale, statuesque figures are expertly foreshortened to facilitate a low viewpoint for the painting’s original location high on the chapel walls. Lanfranco’s inventive pictorial conception precedes by many years the kind of illusionist compositions that later became popular throughout Europe.
According to the Gospels, having come upon a hoard of followers, Christ healed their sick and miraculously fed thousands with just a few loaves of bread and fish. The loaves in this scene foreshadow the sacramental bread of Communion. The colourful, pastel palette and chalky brushstrokes used here reflect the technique of Lanfranco’s wall paintings, a reminder of his reputation as one of the most productive and inventive frescoists of the century. The large-scale, statuesque figures are expertly foreshortened to facilitate a low viewpoint for the painting’s original location high on the chapel walls. Lanfranco’s inventive pictorial conception precedes by many years the kind of illusionist compositions that later became popular throughout Europe.
ProvenanceCommissioned from the artist, 1621; completed and installed in the Cappella del Sacramento (Blessed Sacrament Chapel) of the Basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura (Saint-Paul’s-Outside-the-Walls, Rome, Italy), 1624–1625; in Cappella del Sacramento until about 1660-68; then moved to sacristy; later to refectory; moved to Convento di San Callisto, Rome, by 1763; acquired by Cardinal Joseph Fesch (Paris, 1763–Rome, 1839) by about 1803/1806; held in trust by estate of Cardinal Joseph Fesch, 1839–1843; sold, Fesch sale, Rome, 17 April, 1843, lot 584, to Alessandro Aducci; purchased from Alessandro Aducci by the National Gallery of Ireland, 1856 (one of sixteen pictures acquired by the NGI for £1,700).
Exhibition HistoryGiovanni Lanfranco: Un Pittore Barocco, Reggia de Colorno, Parma, 8 September - 2 December 2001; Castel Sant'Elmo, Naples, 21 December 2001 - 24 February 2002; Palazzo Venezia, Rome, 16 March - 16 July 2002
Label TextThis painting is part of an ambitious cycle of eight huge canvases and three frescoes that Lanfranco completed for the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in the Basilica of San Paolo Fuori le Mura in Rome. Each of these works were dedicated to the theme of the Eucharist. Here, Christ feeds thousands of people with just a few fish and loaves of bread – a narrative that appears twice in the New Testament and prefigures the rite of Communion. Lanfranco effectively used perspective and foreshortening to create an illusionistic space with which viewers can interact and communicate.
