8) Ecstasy of Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi (San Giorgio)
MOTHER CHURCH OF SAN GIORGIO MARTIRE Ragusa Ibla
Second half of the century XVIII – Unknown author – Ecstasy of Saint Mary Magdalene of the Pazzi
The canvas depicting is anonymous and undated Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi placed in the second altar of the nave on the left.
In the work the Carmelite Saint (1566-1607), belonging to the noble Florentine house de' Pazzi, represented with her heart evident in her chest, the stigmata on her hands and feet, a crown of thorns on her head, holding a cross and a chain in her hand, supported by an angel, on her knees, in ecstasy before the Child Jesus placed in top left between clouds and cherubs; a green curtain opens above an architecture.
The Child points to his heart with the finger of his hand, from which a ray of light emerges directed towards the saint.
A cherub, holding a lily, emblem of the saint and an open book, points with a finger to the writing on a page which reads: "DABO COR NOVUM ET SPIRITUM NOVUM", an allusion to the exchange of his heart with that of the child Jesus.
The winged cherubs and seraphim witness the scene above. Below, in the foreground, a cross, a skull, and the symbols of passion (nails, hammer, tongs, hyssop cane, arrows).
The work, which responds to the canons of late Baroque classicism of the eighteenth century, is rather weak in workmanship.
