Bernardo Strozzi (Genoa 1581 – Venice 1644), Parable of the wedding guest

This canvas is currently kept at the Gallerie Accademia, Venezia.

Bernardo Strozzi (also known as “the Capuchin” or “the Genoese Priest” for his biographical events), a fundamental figure in Italian painting in the early 17th century, was born in Genoa in 1581 and did his apprenticeship in the workshop of the Tuscan mannerist Pietro Sorri. A Capuchin Friar, due to judicial problems with his order, he moved to Venice in 1633, where, as an established artist, he immediately obtained important commissions.

In 1636 Strozzi painted a large oval canvas to be placed on the ceiling above the main altar in the Venetian church Ospedale degli Incurabili, representing the “Parable of the wedding guest”. The decorative project was completed several years later, alongside Padovanino’s “Parable of the wise virgins and the foolish virgins” (completed in 1644) and the “Paradiso”, begun by Sante Peranda in 1638 and completed after his death by Francesco Maffei. The iconographic reading of this composition obviously revolves around “Paradise”, with the two parables alluding to the need for the soul to be ready to rise to heaven at the time of death. This large canvas, owned by the Giamblanco Gallery, is an extraordinary fragment of that composition.

Click HERE for a full description in the Catalogue of Italian painting from the 17th to 18th century 2015, pg. 10-13