Miraculous cure of the Cardinal and recognition of the miracle by the Pope
Jorge Lealca.1520
Museu de São Roque
Lisboa, Portugal
This painting belongs to a set of four panels dedicated to the life and legend of Saint Roch that made up part of the altar-piece of the old Shrine of São Roque, constructed in 1505. (I. Birth and adolescence of Saint Roch, II. The Healing of the Cardinal, III. Stay in Piacenza and retreat in the forest; IV. Imprisonment and beatific death of Saint Roch). These four paintings stand out for their narrative capacity managed by means of duplication of scenes within the same panel. In each of the panels two distinct episodes of the life of the saint are represented: in the foreground, chronologically the first episode; in the background, the second episode, inserted or seen through a window. In this second panel the episode of Saint Roch’s miraculous healing of the English cardinal is represented in the foreground. The saint, standing next to the bed of the sick, traces the sign of the cross on his forehead. At the foot of the cardinal’s bed, one can observe the ecclesiastical clothes, which identify him, and a cup and two jars placed on a wooden bench. Two young men, with their arms raised and kneeling at the foot of the cardinal's bed, watch the miraculous cure. On the wall, a small painting with the representation of Calvary.
- Title: Miraculous cure of the Cardinal and recognition of the miracle by the Pope
- Creator Lifespan: Unknown
- Creator Nationality: Portuguese; Flemish-Portuguese
- Creator Gender: Male; Male
- Date: ca.1520
- Physical Dimensions: w129 x h128 cm (with frame)
- Provenance: Museu de São Roque/Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa
- Type: Painting
- Rights: Museu de São Roque/Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa
- External Link: Museu de São Roque/Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa
- Medium: Oil on wood
- Painter; Painter: Jorge Leal (?); Cristóvão de Utreque (?)
- Manufactured: Portugal
- Biography of the saint: According to the chroniclers of Saint Roch, he would have been born around 1350, in Montpellier, with a birthmark in the shape of a red cross on his chest and became an orphan while still young. Deciding to follow a life of pilgrimage, the young man distributed his fortune to the poor and left in the direction of Rome, where he would have stayed between 1367 and 1371, heading afterwards to the Apennine Mountains. In Acquapendente, an Italian commune in the Lazio region, Saint Roch, confronted by an outbreak of the plague, would have dedicated himself to the victims of the terrible disease, managing to cure some of them with the simple administration of the sign of the cross. Infected with the disease, the saint, who miraculously avoided what was going to happen to him, would have hidden himself away in a forest where he was cured by an angel, who applied a miraculous balm on his wounds, and was fed by a dog, who took him bread everyday. Cured, Saint Roch would have returned to his birthplace where he was unjustly accused of espionage and arrested, dying in prison according to some versions of the legend, while other more reliable sources say that he would have died in Angera, in Lombardy in 1379. The cult of Saint Roch left France and Italy in the 15th century spreading rapidly throughout Europe, including Portugal, which is explained by the recurring epidemics of the plague that marked the history of the old continent until the 16th century. At the end of the 15th century Saint Roch was included in the Martyrology, by Pope Gregory XIII, and at the end of the 17th century was canonised by Pope Urban VIII.
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