The Coronation of Saint Rosalia, 1644

St Rosalia lived in the twelfth century and is said to have dwelled as a recluse in the caves of Monte Pellegrino near Palermo in Sicily. Here an angel has brought her before the throne of the Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus, who is presenting her with a crown of flowers. This is the moment we see depicted here. In Gaspar De Crayer’s altarpiece she is dressed in a robe of gold brocade and holds a garland of roses. The books, the lily and the skull are the only reminders of her life as a recluse. The altarpiece comes from the Jesuit church in Ypres and was originally two metres wider. After the abolishment of the Jesuit order in 1777 the work was purchased for the church of St Peter’s Abbey in Ghent by the abbot. The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna houses a painting by Anthony van Dyck with the same subject and with a similar composition, but painted fifteen years earlier. Gaspar de Crayer was one of Rubens’ most important followers in the Southern Netherlands.