MICHELANGELO ANSELMI (C. 1492-1556) (PREVIOUSLY ATTRIBUTED IN POPHAM AND WILDE TO SCHOOL OF PARMA 'VERY NEAR IN STYLE TO CORREGGIO...AND REMINISCENT OF A YOUNG ANSELMI AND THE YOUNG PARMIGIANINO, BUT I WOULD HESTITATE TO ATTRIBUTE IT TO EITHER.')
St Anselm appearing to the Abbot Helsin during a storm at sea
c. 1532RCIN 990601
This study for a fresco in the Oratorio della Concezione, Parma, shows St Anselm, an eleventh-century Archbishop of Canterbury, appearing in a vision during a storm at sea. Anselmi’s painting combined two traditions: one attributed the establishment of the feast of the Immaculate Conception to St Anselm; another claimed that the feast was instituted by the abbot Helsin, at Ramsey in Kent, when his ship was saved from a storm by an angel.
No. 41