BOCANEGRA, Pedro Anastasio
(b. 1638, Granada, d. 1689, Granada)

St Dominic in Soriano

c. 1660
Oil on canvas, 120 x 103 cm
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

It was told that in 1530 a Dominican monk of Soriano in southern Italy dreamed that the Virgin, accompanied by Mary Magdalene and Catherine of Siena, presented him with a portrait of St Dominic. he awoke to find himself possessed of just such a portrait, which was discovered to have miraculous properties. This subject occurs in Dominican church art of the baroque period and shows the monk dressed in the habit of his Order kneeling before the Virgin and two saints, receiving the portrait. It is a full-length picture of Dominic and shows him holding a lily and a book.

Bocanegra was influenced by Alonso Cano. By 1668 he was established as the major painter active in Granada and he received several important commissions.