Trascrizione
Giuseppe Alberti, a painter, architect, and priest born in 1640 in Cavalese, is considered one of the most important Baroque artists from Trentino.
Having trained in Rome and Venice, a lively artistic community formed around him in the Val di Fiemme and South Tyrol, leading to the emergence of a sort of local painting school.
In the Tridentine episcopal principality, thanks to the patronage of Bishops Sigismondo Alfonso Thun and Francesco Alberti Poja, this artist worked on the major projects of the time, namely the chapel of the Crucifix in the cathedral and the expansion of the Magno Palazzo at the Castello del Buonconsiglio, known as the 'giunta albertiana'.
Here, you can observe the Ecstasy of Saint Vigilius, a painting commissioned by Thun for his private chapel in the Castello del Buonconsiglio. In line with the dramatic and moving tones typical of sacred painting of this period, the work depicts the patron saint of the diocese, Vigilius, in an ecstatic attitude and enveloped in a sumptuous cope. Confirmed bishop of Trento by Saint Ambrose in the fourth century, according to tradition, Vigilius was killed by the pagan population of Val Rendena with clogs, which thus became symbols of his alleged martyrdom. They are visible in the painting, held up by some cherubs together with the palm. The canvas also includes a "painting within the painting", a pictorial device typical of the Baroque period that allowed the artist to associate in a single image the ecstasy of the bishop with the foreshadowing of his martyrdom.