The canvas of the Consecration of St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra by Pietro Damini (1619 ca.)
This work was executed by the painter Pietro Damini from Castelfranco Veneto for the Church of St. Nicholas, the oldest religious building in the city built during the first part of the 13th century and dedicated to the Augustine Fathers who in turn were affiliated to the Augustinian religious order (The Eremitani) of Padua. After various restorations over the centuries during the 1600s the building was radically modified, the definitive form being the one we see today. At the end of the second decade of the century, above all in line with the anti-reformation climate of the period, the anxiety to change the iconography and the spirit of figurative representation in religious art lead to the production of this work by Pietro Damini, destined along with that of Andrea Vicentino to form part of the new decoration of the church.
“The Consecration of St Nicholas, Bishop of Myra” noted not only for the visual impact of its foreground but also for its resplendent airy ambience, especially prominent after recent restoration, luminosity and ample chromatic range makes evident a grand ability and graphic precision which is also exressed both in the careful and precise analysis of the characters, and in the industrious and accurate representation of the architectural details of the ample scene behind the protagonists.
