On the occasion of the loan of Vittore Carpaccio’s altarpiece depicting «Saint George killing the dragon» to the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart for the exhibition «Carpaccio, Bellini und die Frührenaissance in Venedig», the Benedictine Community of San Giorgio Maggiore - through its non profit branch Benedicti Claustra Onlus - commissioned the artist from Romagna Nicola Samorì a painting to temporarily replace the well-known sixteenth-century masterpiece. Portraying the Holy Knight in the act of destroying the dragon, on Vittore Carpaccio’s canvas a scene of the stoning of Saint Stephen - co-titular, together with Saint George, of the Benedictine Monastery - is meticulously described in the background. It is precisely from the joint representation of these two Saints that «Primo Martire» originates: “in the painting I made for the Abbey of San Giorgio Maggiore”, declares the Artist, “I intended to bring the martyrdom of Saint Stephen to the foreground, overturning the legible proportions in Carpaccio’s artwork: it is the First Martyr who looms large, while Saint George becomes a sort of blasone, imprinted on Stephen’s mantle, in a reverse temporality, as if the Martyr dressed the future.” Drawing iconographic inspiration from the «Stoning of Saint Stephen» painted by Pier Francesco Cittadini in 1637 for the Basilica of Saint Stephen in Bologna, Samorì materially struck the effigy of the Saint - victim, as is known, of stoning, and therefore traditionally depicted in co-presence of stones -, through the pressure of stones on the canvas. “The stoning took place physically on the body of the painting, opening gashes in the still soft oil modeled”, continues Samorì: “my transcription of the ancient model is quite faithful, but the texture of the painting is shocked by incursions which precipitate the Baroque code towards Informal gesture”. 📸 Nicola Samorì, «Primo Martire»(detail), 2024. Abbey of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice. © Nicola Samorì Courtesy the artist and Monitor Roma, Lisbona, Pereto (AQ) ______________ «Petrae Fidei» 22 December 2024 - 09 March 2025  10:00 am - 05:00 pm  Closed on Mondays Free entrance