The Miracle Of The Grain with Saint John Gualbert

Alessandro Allori 1603

Audio description of the artwork

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In the section on The Riblet donation two altarpieces by Alessandro Allori can be compared. The Miracle of the Grain and the Miracle of the Spring were painted for the chapel of Villa Spini in Motrone (Peretola), and with the painted panel by Santi di Tito were donated to the Municipality of Prato by the countess Angela Riblet, the last owner of that Villa in the outskirts of Florence. The altarpiece with the miracle of the grain performed by John Gualbert in Passignano creates around the imposing figure of the saint a dynamic lively scene crowned by the fine landscape, which shows references to the Flemish art.

Technical information

Author: Alessandro Allori
Title: The Miracle Of The Grain with Saint John Gualbert
Date: 1603
Material and technique: Oil on canvas
Size: 280x190 cm
Location: Palazzo Pretorio Museum
Second Floor

The Spini family commissioned Santi di Tito to work to a complete restructuring of their suburban villa of Motrone (Peretola). Almost at the end of the works Alessandro Allori, who was at the peak of his career, also collaborated in decorating the chapel, completing some mural paintings perhaps after the death of Santi di Tito (1603), the author of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes.

The artwork painted by Allory celebrates one of the miracles traditionally attributed to Saint John Gualbert, the founder of the congregation of the Vallombrosan monks: in a year of tremendous famine, a minute supply of wheat was left only in the monastery of Passignano. John Gualbert ordered its sharing: after having filled sacks of wheat for all the monasteries of the order, then for all the poor people arriving at the abbey, the barn still stayed full for a long time.

The composition of the painting the Miracle of the Grain was carefully planned by Allori, as is documented by the various preparatory drawings now in the Uffizi of Drawings and Prints. Allori, with many interventions from his workshop assistants, recreates around the imposing static figure of the saint a dynamic, lively scene, crowned by the fine landscape with the view of Vallombrosa abbey, where Saint John Gualbert had founded the congregation of Benedictine monks. As well as in the other altarpiece for the chapel, the artist inserts some clearly-characterised portraits into the composition: here he celebrates the children of Geri Spini, one of whom is looking out of the scene towards the viewer.