A Miracle of Saint Francis of Paola

Sebastiano Ricci painted A Miracle of Saint Francis of Paola in 1733 as an oil on canvas work. Count Grigory Stroganov acquired the painting in Rome, though it does not appear in catalogues of his sales or collection, which focused on selected works purchased circa 1880–1890 from the sale of Cardinal Immenraet. The composition entered the collection of Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi in Rome by 1927 and was purchased in 1931 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.

It was subsequently gifted to the National Gallery of Art in 1939. Documentation of the work in the Kress collection appears in a 1932 publication by Alfred M. Frankfurter, and provenance details were confirmed through correspondence with Contini Bonacossi in 1969.

The painting measures 84.9 cm in height and 35.2 cm in width and remains in the National Gallery of Art’s collection as part of the Samuel H. Kress Collection. It is classified as a religious work within the broader category of 18th-century Venetian painting.

The work is held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it is accessioned as part of the Samuel H. Kress Collection. It was purchased in 1931 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and later gifted to the museum in 1939. The painting was documented in exhibition contexts through the Kress Collection archives and referenced in Alfred M. Frankfurter’s 1932 article on eighteenth-century Venetian works in an American collection, which highlighted its inclusion in the Kress holdings.

Exhibition history is limited to its presence within the Kress Collection displays and related institutional presentations, including its role in the pendant pairing with another Ricci work in the collection. Its provenance traces from Count Grigory Stroganov in Rome to Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, then to the Kress Foundation in 1931, before its 1939 donation to the National Gallery of Art.

Sebastiano Ricci’s oil on canvas, dated 1733, portrays a miraculous episode associated with Saint Francis of Paola. The composition centers on a gathering of onlookers who look upward, while a woman cradling an infant gestures toward a figure lying on the ground, indicating the moment of divine intervention.

Created in the early eighteenth century, the painting reflects the continued popularity of religious subjects in Venetian art circles. Ricci’s approach aligns with Baroque conventions of theatricality and emotional engagement, while also anticipating the lighter, more decorative tendencies that would later define Rococo.