Portrait of an Infirm Priest

This melancholic and moving priest is undoubtedly one of the most striking and successful examples of Patania’s portraiture due to his extraordinary and realistic exploration of facial features and effective psychological introspection. The character is Papas Pietro Prosfera, the Greek rite Jesuit priest whom Patania met in 1831 while he was working in the church of San Demetrio in Piana degli Albanesi, a Sicilian enclave that follows the Byzantine-Greek rite.