Saints Cosmas and Damian Healing the Sick
Jean Georges
Basic information
- ID
- Ж-4123
- Author
- Jean Georges
- Name
- Saints Cosmas and Damian Healing the Sick
- Technique
- oil painting
- Material
- wood oil
- Dimensions (height x width, cm)
- 29 x 45
Additionally
- Type
- painting
- Genre
- religious
- Plot
- Saint
- Provenance
- Handed over by the Drohobych Local Studies Museum, 1966
- Exposition
- Potocki Palace
Information about author
Object description
The work is signed by Jean Georges and is a copy of the painting of the same name by the Italian artist Francesco Pesellino (1422–1457), created in the 1440s and currently held in the art collection of the Louvre.
The original work by Pesellino is a fragment of the predella of the altar of the Novitiate Chapel in the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, which was patronised by the Medici.
The painting illustrates a famous miracle of the Christian saints Cosmas and Damian – the healing of Deacon Justinian. Cosmas and Damian were twin brothers who became renowned as compassionate and selfless physicians who refused payment for their work.
According to legend, Deacon Justinian suffered from a diseased leg. In a dream, Saints Cosmas and Damian appeared to him, amputated the afflicted limb, and attached in its place the healthy leg of a recently deceased Ethiopian.
The scene is set in Justinian's bedroom. A dark night is visible through the open window. Cosmas and Damian, wearing bright red headdresses and robes, stand on either side of the patient’s bed. One of them carefully applies the new leg to the body of the fast-asleep patient.
On the left, a maidservant enters the room, carrying a bowl of water to wash the wound.
The poses of the characters are restrained and monumental, free from unnecessary dramatisation, which is highly characteristic of Florentine painting from the mid-15th century.
The original work by Pesellino is a fragment of the predella of the altar of the Novitiate Chapel in the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, which was patronised by the Medici.
The painting illustrates a famous miracle of the Christian saints Cosmas and Damian – the healing of Deacon Justinian. Cosmas and Damian were twin brothers who became renowned as compassionate and selfless physicians who refused payment for their work.
According to legend, Deacon Justinian suffered from a diseased leg. In a dream, Saints Cosmas and Damian appeared to him, amputated the afflicted limb, and attached in its place the healthy leg of a recently deceased Ethiopian.
The scene is set in Justinian's bedroom. A dark night is visible through the open window. Cosmas and Damian, wearing bright red headdresses and robes, stand on either side of the patient’s bed. One of them carefully applies the new leg to the body of the fast-asleep patient.
On the left, a maidservant enters the room, carrying a bowl of water to wash the wound.
The poses of the characters are restrained and monumental, free from unnecessary dramatisation, which is highly characteristic of Florentine painting from the mid-15th century.
Inscriptions
In the bottom left corner: "Georges Jean [illegible] Pesellino".
Legal regulation
Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery
