Saint Paul (Bull Sacrifice in Lystra)

Szymon Czechowicz

Basic information

ID: Ж-3346
Author: Szymon Czechowicz
Name: Saint Paul (Bull Sacrifice in Lystra)
Date of creation: c.1767
Country: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Technique: oil painting
Material: canvas oil
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 91 x 116

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: religious
Plot: Acts of the Holy Apostles
Exposition: Zhovkva Castle

Information about author

Author: Szymon Czechowicz
Artist's lifetime: 1689–1775
Country: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Biography: Szymon Czechowicz was born in an impoverished noble family in Krakow on July 28, 1689. He became an orphan at a young age. Thanks to the support of his patron and philanthropist Franciszek Ossolinski, the artist went to Rome, where he studied painting at the Academy of St. Luke under the guidance of Carlo Maratti. The first professional works of the artist were copies after famous painters, such as Rubens, Van Dyck and others; the artist drew upon their iconographic compositions. In 1765, at the invitation of Waclaw Rzewuski, he arrived at Pidhirtsi Castle in the Lviv region; by 1767, Czechowicz created 107 works that became part of the castle interior and a kind of the first museum of the artist. During the last period of his life, Szymon Czechowicz worked in Lithuania and Warsaw, where he opened his own art studio. The painter died on July 21, 1775. He was considered to be one of the best artists of the Baroque era in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Among the master's creative legacy, there are portraits and monumental paintings on sacred themes.

Object description

The work is a multi-figure composition. In the right part is the figure of the Holy Apostle Paul in red clothes; the apostle Barnabas, dressed in blue garments, is behind him. In the foreground is a pagan altar in the form of a low column, near which there is a figure of a man raising an axe over the bull's head. To his right is a figure of a man holding an animal by the neck. The image of a crowd worshipping the apostles is on the left. The landscape with elements of ancient columns and the figure of the god Mars depicted on them serves as a background for the painting.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Saint Paul (Bull Sacrifice in Lystra)

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