Alexander IV delivering the Bull of Union to the Order of Hermits of Saint Augustine
1663 - 1711. Oil on canvas.On display elsewhere
This is a scene typical to Augustinian iconography. The painting depicts Pope Alexander IV delivering the Bull of Union to the Hermits of Saint Augustine, while Cardinal Riccardo Annibaldi, protector of the Order and promoter of the great Union, advises him. The dove that inspires the Pope may refer to the dream that the Pope had in which he was asked to carry out such union.
This work is part of a set of 27 paintings on the ‘Life of Saint Augustine’, which decorated the lower main cloister of the Convent of San Felipe el Real (Madrid). It was commissioned to José García Hidalgo, who was to produce it apparently in collaboration with Alonso del Arco, between 1663 and 1711. The works related to date to this period belonging to the Museo del Prado are the following ones: P003268, P003770 (sketch), P004096, P004754, P004755, P005055, P005117, P005508, P005862 (and its sketch P003514), P006124, P006126, P006135, P006971, P007490. The main iconographic source for García Hidalgo´s work were the prints by the Flemish engraver Schelte Adams Bolswert, which have helped to correctly identify many of the scenes in the period, whose iconographic motifs had been forgotten and confused since the time of the Confiscation (Iturbe Sáiz, A. in: Artistic heritage of three Augustinian convents in Madrid before and after the confiscation of Mendizábal, El Escorial, 2007, pp. 335–368).
