Saint Augustine distributing the goods of the rich among the poor
1663 - 1711. Oil on canvas.On display elsewhere
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 from José García Hidalgo, who executed it –apparently in an ill-conceived collaboration with Alonso del Arco– between 1663 and 1711. The works related to this cycle extant at the Museo del Prado are: P003268, P003770 (sketch), P004096, P004754, P004755, P005055, P005117, P005508, P005862 (and its sketch P003514), P006124, P006126, P006135, P006971, and P007490. The main source for the iconography in García Hidalgo´s work, were prints by the Flemish engraver Schelte Adams Bolswert, which have helped to properly identify many of the scenes in the cycle, whose iconographic motifs had been forgotten and unintelligible since the time of the Ecclesiastical Confiscations.
Iturbe Sáiz, Antonio, Patrimonio artístico de tres conventos agustinos en Madrid antes y después de la desamortización de Mendizábal. Actas del Simposium La desamortización: el expolio del patrimonio artístico y cultural de la Iglesia en España, San Lorenzo del Escorial, Madrid, R.C.U. Escorial-Mª Cristina, Servicio de Publicaciones, 2007, p.335-368
