SIMONE FERRI DA POGGIBONSI

VISION OF ST. JACEK ODROWĄŻ (VISION OF SAINT HYACINTH)

SIMONE FERRI DA POGGIBONSI
Documented POGGIBONSI (?) 1564 – 1600
Oil on canvas
113 x 93 cm / 44.5 x 36.6 inches, with frame 133 x 113 cm / 52.5 x 44.6 inches

PROVENANCE
Private collection, Berlin

The canonization in 1594 of Saint Hyacinth, the Polish Dominican monk Jacek Odrowąż, was a significant event not only for the Catholic world but also for the art world, as it provided artists with the opportunity to develop new iconographic themes. Jacek Odrowąż (1183/85–1257), known by his Latinized name, Hyacinth, was renowned for the numerous miracles he performed during his missionary work in Kiev and the East.

Coming from a noble Silesian family, Hyacinth received his theological education in Paris and Bologna. However, the defining moment of his life was his meeting with Saint Dominic in Rome in 1221. From the hands of Domingo de Guzmán Garcés, he received the Dominican habit and immediately began his journey back to his homeland. Along the way, in Friesach, he founded the first Dominican monastery in German-speaking lands and eventually settled first in Krakow. After traveling through Moravia and Pomorie, he reached Kiev.

At the same time, Tatar troops were invading Europe from the east, and in 1240 the Tatar army reached Kievan Rus. According to legend, after Mass, Saint Hyacinth heard a woman's voice: "O Hyacinth, my son, will you flee the hands of the Tartars and leave me and my son for them to break to pieces and trample?" The Virgin Mary had spoken to him from a statue. Although he initially protested that the statue was too heavy for him to carry, Mary assured him that her son would lighten the burden. Thus, with the statue in one arm and the host in the other, he escaped the chapel just in time, miraculously crossing the Dnieper River on dry ground.

Saint Hyacinth is often depicted with two attributes: a monstrance containing the Holy Eucharist and a statue of the Mother of God in his hands (Acta Sanctorum, August, vol. 3, 317).

The canonization of Saint Hyacinth by Pope Clement VIII significantly bolstered his veneration in both Poland and Italy. As one of the first Polish saints and a prominent member of the Dominican Order, his missionary work and miraculous deeds, such as saving a statue of the Virgin Mary and the Eucharist from a Tatar invasion, made him a symbol of hope and protection. In Poland, he is celebrated for strengthening the Catholic faith and founding the first Dominican monastery in Krakow, while in Italy, his legacy inspired Counter-Reformation art and devotion. His attributes—the Virgin Mary statue and the monstrance—became central to his iconography, reflecting his role as a defender of faith and protector in times of crisis.

However, the most frequently depicted subject in art is another miracle: the Vision of Saint Hyacinth, which occurred in Krakow on the eve of the Ascension. The Virgin Mary appeared to him, saying: "Hyacinth, my son, rejoice, for your prayers have been accepted and granted in the sight of my son, the Savior of all mankind. Whatever you ask in my name, I will obtain of him" (Acta Sanctorum, August, vol. 3, 315, 340).

The attribution of this work to Simone Ferri of Poggibonsi was suggested by Roberto Ciabattini in 2019.

Wladyslaw Maximowicz

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