Focusing on the Analysis of this artwork, explore the Saints at the Devil's Prey about the Devotion or exorcism.
Saints at the Devil's Prey Pointing to the influence of Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend on Renaissance art, Glenn Watkins reveals a layer of signification that a modern spectator might not see: “The collection of saints in the altarpiece clearly held a special meaning as all of them, like Gesualdo, had encountered the devil or demons but had nonetheless prevailed.”In his first book, Gesualdo, the Man and his Music, the American musicologist notes that the prince thought of the flagellation that adolescent boys, hired for this purpose, performed on him as a form of exorcism to drive his demons away. Watkins also reminds us that “St. Francis exorcising the demons from Arezzo became a popular subject for artists” since the thirteenth century.
Golden Legend Jacobus de Voragine Glenn Watkins flagellation exorcism altarpiece Gesualdo