St. Francis Borgia

Description: The oval image contains a depiction of St. Francis Borgia (also called Borgias) shown in front of the altar, during a vision in which he saw the chalice and the host. The saint shown in the foreground of the composition, kneeling rather than standing, shown in 3/4 of the figure’s height, slightly turned to the right (heraldically) side. Francis’s head is very slightly raised, the face of an elderly man (but not an old man) with portrait features, strongly elongated, with a nose with a marked hump, large ears; pale pink complexion, dark eyes lifted upwards, gray stubble at the bottom of the face limited to a mustache and a beard on the chin; head mostly bald, graying blond hair visible on the back and at the temples. The saint has his right arm bent at the elbow, his fingers touch his breast; left arm down along the body. Borgias dressed in a liturgical dress: a gray-and-white alb with an amice of the same color visible at the neck and the ends of the alb’s sleeves trimmed with lace, a gold-colored chasuble made of fabric decorated with a motif of weaves of plant twigs; on his left arm hangs a manipulator made of the same fabric. On the right (from the viewer) side of the composition, at the bottom, next to the figure of the saint, right behind her, a tangled red cloak, on it a cardinal’s hat of the same color, against the background of the cloak, the tip of the cane (?) in gold color, decorated with stones, the shaft of the cane red ( insignia of power). On the left side of the picture, also in the background, there is an altar towards which St. Franciszek: on a high pedestal covered with a gray fabric (on the edge of which there is a princely red miter trimmed with ermine fur), a small brown column retable set diagonally (to the plane of the picture), preceded from the bottom with a black sarcophagus mensa flanked by brown volutes (against the mensa background) a set black crucifix with a white and yellow figure of Christ – probably made of ivory); gray retable columns, between them a painting of the Virgin Mary with the Child in the type of Our Lady of the Snows. The final of the retable is covered by gray clouds, which also cover the background behind the figure of the saint – clouds illuminated only at the top of the painting, at its edge, slightly to the right (heraldically), here against the gray-blue sky a golden chalice with a white host surrounded by radiant glory is shown here against the gray-blue sky. Partially openwork frame. In the general outline of an oval, slightly elongated on the vertical axis (slightly more from the top, where it has the character of a finial. Made of symmetrical, multi-layer weaves of acanthus flagellum in the white color of the polished ground, with a sharp styling (but not yet withering). The described weaves are enriched with motifs in Entirely or partially gold: with profiled slats, sections of a gathered ribbon, mostly twisted (with volute endings), and finally festoons with flowers, and two censers on the sides.

Provenance: The painting belongs to a series of nine compositions funded by the Świdnica Jesuits as part of the baroqueization of the Gothic interior of the church in Świdnica, which lasted several decades. The paintings were commissioned in 1700 by two Silesian painters: four from Knechtl and five from Johann Jacob Eybelwieser the Younger. Knechtel probably painted his paintings quite quickly, already around 1700, while Eybelwieser – judging from the signatures and dates discovered during the conservation works on some of his paintings from the series (including the painting of St. Francis Xavier discussed here) – completed his part of the commission only in 1710, and probably then rich frames for all the canvases were made.

Characteristics: The painting belongs to a series that was intended to illustrate the merits of the Jesuits in the history of the Catholic Church by showing the most outstanding representatives of the order. A special role among them in the first period of the existence of the Jesuits was played by St. Francis Borgia (1510-1572). He came from the famous Spanish Borgia family and spent the first part of his life at the Spanish court, making a completely secular and very successful career there. However, the influence of his pious upbringing became apparent when he was widowed in 1546. Under the influence of St. Ignatius of Loyola, he joined the Jesuits and played a huge role in the organization of the then-emerging order, of which he eventually became the third general. However, he paid great attention to the spiritual life of his confreres. Involved in the organization of an expedition against the Turks threatening Europe at that time, he lived to see a great naval victory over the Ottoman fleet at Lepanto in 1572. In the painting, he is presented surrounded by attributes that bring to mind his resignation from secular life and titles (he also rejected the title of cardinal). The part of the series, to which the picture in question belongs, was entrusted by the monks from Świdnica to the Wrocław guild painter, Johann Jacob Eybelwieser. These are some of his earliest works. A painting depicting St. Francis Borgias painted – like all the works of this artist belonging to the discussed series – with accuracy and subtlety, it combines an almost portrait shot of the saint’s face with a suggestive depiction of a monk who, having rejected secular and spiritual dignities, devotes himself to God with steadfast faith.