Saint Roch as a Pilgrim

Tiepolo was one of the most renowned artists in eighteenth-century Venice. Influenced by Venetian Renaissance painters such as Tintoretto and Veronese, he composed numerous religious and mythological scenes, achieving notoriety for his paintings’ vivid color and theatrical effects. In this small canvas, made for private devotion, he depicts Saint Roch, the medieval French nobleman who, according to hagiographic accounts, miraculously healed plague victims while a mendicant pilgrim in Italy. In Tiepolo’s painting, the saint, who has now contracted the disease himself, sits against a tattered fence, lifting his cloak to display the plague wounds on his upper thigh. He is joined by a dog, which would later heal his sores by licking them. Saint Roch was popular in Venice because its residents often fell victim to plague and other diseases. During the Renaissance, his body was purportedly transferred to the city, where a church and hospital were dedicated to him.