Christ healing the Lame Man at the Pool of Bethesda
Sebastiano Ricci (Belluno 1659 – Venice 1734)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1726 - 1730
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
508 x 483 mm (20 x 19 in)
Place of origin
Venice
Order this imageCollection
Knightshayes Court, Devon
NT 541105
Caption
This group scene is set amongst colonnaded Roman architecture. Christ is the central figure pointing as he instructs the prostrate lame man below, sitting by the Pool of Bethesda, to take up his bed and walk again, as told in the biblical gospel of John. This was possibly painted for Consul Smith as part of a set of seven New Testament scenes. Another in the set, The Adoration of the Magi (of which there is a small study for, or modello, in the Princes Gate Collection, Courtauld Institute, London, of the same size as this picture) is in the Royal Collection and is dated 1726.There is an autograph reduction of the painting originally in the Royal Collection, now hanging at Osterley (NT).
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Christ healing the Lame Man at the Pool of Bethesda by Sebastiano Ricci (Belluno 1659 – Venice 1734), 1726-30. A square painting showing a group scene set amongst colonnaded Roman architecture, the central figure of Jesus pointing to our right as he instructs the prostrate lame man below to take up his bed and walk again (John 5:8). An autograph reduction of a painting originally in the Royal Collection, now hanging at Osterley. Another in the set, The Adoration of the Magi (of which there is a small modello in the Princes Gate Collection, Courtauld Institute, of the same size as this picture), in the Royal Collection is dated 1726.
Provenance
Possibly painted for Consul Smith in Venice, along with the rest of the set of seven New Testament scenes in the late 1720s (referring to large version); Henry Bone, RA; L. W. Neeld sale, Christie's, 13th July 1945, lot 32, bought Knoedler; later with Agnew from whom bought by Sir John Heathcoat Amory (1894 - 1972); bequeathed to the Knightshayes Garden Trust by Sir John in 1972.
Credit line
Knightshayes Court, The Heathcote-Amory Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Sebastiano Ricci (Belluno 1659 – Venice 1734), artist
References
Daniels 1976 (i) J. Daniels, Sebastiano Ricci, Sussex 1976, p. 117, no. 419 Daniels 1976 (ii) J. Daniels, L'Opera Completa di Sebastiano Ricci, 1976, no. 452