6) 1782 – Antonio Manno- Christ appears to Santa Gaudenzia (St. George)
MOTHER CHURCH OF SAN GIORGIO MARTIRE Ragusa Ibla
1782 -. Antonio Manno - Christ appears to Santa Gaudenzia
Commissioned in 1782 the canvas of Christ appears to Santa Gaudenzia by Antonio Manno (oil on canvas, 310 by 207 centimetres). At the bottom on the right we read the inscription: “Pingebat Antonius Manno Pan.o Exspensis Societatis Ss. Sacramenti, et Unionis Ss. Viatici.. Q Particulari… Devotorum 1782”.
Below along the edge of the canvas “ Imago Gloriosae Virginis et Martiris S. Gaudentiae cuius integrum corpus usque ab anno 1623 devote colitur et custodiatur in hac Venerabili Matrici Ecclesia Georgi P:P: et P” The body of the martyr from the Roman catacombs of San Sebastiano are transported to Ragusa thanks to the interest of the friar Bonaventura Arezzo with an act dated 24 May 1623.
The work commissioned by the Society of the SS. Sacramento and the Union of the SS. Viaticum sees the saint on her knees at the bottom left, seen in three-quarter view with her gaze turned towards the luminous Christ in glory and surrounded by an intense source of light, sitting on a cloud, dressed in white, holding the cross in his right hand and with the left the palm of martyrdom to offer to the saint. Saint Gaudenzia wears a blue robe with a golden edge, a green sash that surrounds her waist and around her arms and a light purple cloak. At the bottom left are two winged cherubs, the one sitting on a step is holding a lily.
Another seraph faces Christ from behind on the left; two winged heads are suspended in front of a green cloth that wraps a fluted column. Gioacchino Barbera notes how "in the broad and solemn gestures of the figures and in the scenographic layout clearly derived from Solimenesque, echoes of Marattesque classicism updated on the recent acquisitions of the Batonian language clearly resurface here, as in all the painter's mature production".
On the iconographic level, Barbera always notes a derivation from the canvas with Madonna between San Placido and Santa Flavia of the Archbishop's Chapel of the Seminary of Monreale.
