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“The death of S.Fina”, after the fresco in the chapel of S.Fina at S.Gimignano

Copyist: Gnoli, E.[creator]: Arundel Society, ThePrinter: Ghirlandaio, Domenico Currado Bigordi · 1449-1494Publisher: Greve, Wilhelm

Gnoli’s original watercolour study, executed in 1888 and measuring 53.8 x 57.5 cm (H x W) is in the Fine Art Department, University of Leeds

St.Fina was a native of San Gimignano where she was known as Sarafina. Poorly as a child she devoted her life to the poor and died on 12 March 1253 aged 15. Her death was foretold by an appearance to her by St.Gregory the Great. St.Fina reputedly lived in a rat infested room and the large golden salver and decanter of wine are surely examples of artistic license. The dark amorphous shape under the bench at back left , ditto the shapes on the foot of her bed and the dark shape under her bed plank may originally have represented the rats, which became her traditional attribute.

vide Ledger, Tanya : A Study of The Arundel Society 1848-1897, D.Phil Thesis, University of Oxford, 1978 (available online at http://ora.ouls.ox.ac.uk)
Vide also RSA Library which houses 18 publications produced by the Arundel Society in addition to the loose prints RSA Arundel Society prints are numbered 2014.471-2014.639 inc.



Additional details

  • Object data

    Date1892
    Accession2014.609
    TypePrint
    Dimensions Arched top
    68.4
    69.2 x 53.5 x 58
  • Exhibitions

    No exhibition data for this record.

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