Der Tod des heiligen Alexius

Alexius of Rome was a saint who gave everything up. He left his wealthy family on his wedding day, wandered as a beggar for years, then came home unrecognized and lived under the staircase of his own house until he died. Pietro da Cortona painted that last moment around 1638, the dying man still clutching the letter that would finally tell his family who he was, angels leaning in to receive him. The commission came from Anna Colonna, wife of Taddeo Barberini, a nephew of the reigning pope, Urban VIII, and it later passed to the Oratorian fathers here in Naples. The letter in his hand is the whole story, the only proof of a life spent deliberately hidden.