Suggestions for an Interior Life and Spiritual Progress (Monita,#354)

Returning Love with Love

354.  Let us keep in mind that the Lord has called us from the land of Egypt, that is the world, to a land that exudes milk and honey, that is the Congregation, to be a holy nation, a chosen and favored people, in whose midst He is delighted to dwell.  Therefore, at once let us do away with what may displease His eyes.  Love needs to be returned with love and, as long as we love God, all the rest is to be held as nothing.

Reasons of the Proposed Suggestions (Monita #353)

353.  All of us who have joined the militia of the Somascan Congregation, from the very beginning have set for ourselves this goal: to uproot the shortcomings which disfigure and deface one’s soul; to avoid the occasions of sin which in the world occur so numerous at every step; and to ascend through the steps of virtues to the apex of perfection.  We must keep this end before our spirit in such a way that we will never take away our interior eyes from it.  In this way, full of solicitude to obtain it, we will welcome what is offered as a valid aid in our Constitutions.  Therefore, here are the main suggestions for the development of an interior life.  Those who are eager for spiritual growth will welcome them as commands of the Lord and will observe them diligently.

Saint Jerome Emiliani by Piazzetta Giovanni Battista - New York Robert Simon Fine Art

Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (Venice, 1682 - 1754)
San Girolamo Miani
Oil on canvas
16 1/4 x 12 1/4 inches (41.3 x 31.1 cm.)

larger view

Provenance:
Sale, Christie’s East, New York, Nov. 3, 1999, lot 213 (as Giovanni Battista Piazzetta: Saint Jerome Emiliani);

Collection Charles Blakiston Ashburner, Montross, Virginia, 1999-2010.

Literature:
Adriano Mariuz and Rodolfo Pallucchini, L’opera complete del Piazzetta, Milan 1982, no. 204 as a lost painting known from the engraving of Antonio Baratti

Maria Agnese Chiari Moretto Wiel, ed. L’eredita di Piazzetta; Volti e figure nell’incisione del Settecento, exh. cat., Venice: Palazzo Ducale, 1996, p. 68, no. 135, for the Baratti engraving after the lost painting by Piazzetta

Engraved by Antonio Baratti, 1769 (IGM 191, 191a)
Engraved by Marco Pitteri (IGM 189)
Engraved by Pietro Perfetti (IGM 189a)
Engraved by Giovanni Petrini (IGM 190a)

Piazzetta's half-length paintings of saints are among his most memorable works. They are at once moving devotional images and probing character studies depicting a variety of physical types of different ages. Seen as a group (as when reviewing Pitteri's engravings after them) they are readily, almost defiantly distinguishable one from the other but identifiable only through the inclusion of an emblem appropriate the subject - here the crucifix resting atop the ball and shackle, associated with the Venetian saint Girolamo Miani. George Know was the first to identify the present painting as Piazzetta's lost depcition of the saint (who was also known as San Girolamo or St. Jerome Emiliani) --a work previously known from engravings by Antonio Baratti, Marco Pitteri, Pietro Perfetti and Giovanni Petrini*. The subject, Girolamo Miani (1481-1537), was a Venetian senator, celebrated for his many acts of charity. These were focused on the poor, the sick, on "fallen women," and orphans. In 1532 he founded a religious order, the "Company of the Servants of the Poor," later officially designated the "Clerici regulares S. Majoli Papiae congregationis Somaschae" (today generally known as Somaschi or Somascan Fathers) after its seat at Somasca on the shores of Lake Como.When young, Girolamo joined the Venetian army and was taken prisoner while defending Castelnuovo against the forces of the League of Cambrai. He was miraculously liberated from captivity - an event alluded to by the ball and shackle upon which the crucifix that is the object of the saint's devotion rests. Girolamo Miani was canonized by Pope Clement XIII in 1767 and it is reasonable to supposed that the present painting was executed at that time, or shortly after. Baratti's engraving of the painting is dated 1769. A poor copy of the painting is in the Collegio della Maddalena, Genoa (IGM 188).

Presentation of Mary into the Temple Painting by Tiziano Vecellio.

This painting was made between 1534 and 1538 for the Galleria della Accademia, Venice, Italy where it is currently located. When Tiziano made this big painting (345x775 cm) in Venice, who else but St.Jerome was portrayed in the very left of the painting, asking for some donation along with a little child, maybe an orphan? St.Jerome was a noble man, who began in Venice a very well known works for charities for orphans and needy youth. Around the time when Tiziano painted this artwork, St.Jerome was well known by all in Venice. Tiziano had his studio near one of those orphanages (San Rocco). It is with some certainty that the man on the left is St. Jerome Emiliani. St.Jerome died in 1537.
For an image with good resolution go to:
high resolution image

Oldest emblem of the Somascan Fathers

"Onus Meum Leve" and "Jesus carrying the cross" was chosen during the General Chapter of 1610 AD as the official coat of arm, or emblem for the "Ordo Clericorum Regularium a Somascha".
This image taken from a book of 1618 AD is the oldest emblem of the Order of St.Jerome.