Saint Nicholas of Tolentino Reviving a Child by Benvenuto Tisi

Benvenuto Tisi, called Il Garofalo, painted this dramatic miracle scene in 1530, and it now hangs in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The painting shows Saint Nicholas of Tolentino reviving a child as the mother kneels in desperation. Everyone in the room reacts, except the man in the red coat on the left, who seems to stand apart from the event.

Look past him, out the architectural opening. A landscape with mountains and water sits there, easy to scroll past. Tisi placed it intentionally. The distant city is almost certainly a view of Ferrara, the artist's hometown and the seat of the d'Este court he served his entire career. It roots a universal miracle in a specific, real place.

Tisi trained under followers of Raphael, and you can see that schooling in the column that frames the left side of the painting and separates the interior drama from the outside world. He spent his career in Ferrara, far from Rome or Florence, yet his work reached the Met. A carnation, garofano in Italian, was his signature mark.

The miracle is the painting's subject, but the landscape is its anchor. Next time a Renaissance painting gives you a window, stop and look through it.