Conversion of Saint Paul

In 2021 the Belvedere announced the largest gift in its recent history, nearly 800 objects collected by Ingeborg and Wolfgang Maurer, with Austrian Baroque painting at its heart. This small copper plate came with it, together with a companion of the same tall, narrow shape showing the Virgin raised into heaven. Here Janneck paints the moment on the road to Damascus when Saul, persecutor of the first Christians, is struck down by a light from heaven. He lies on his back beside his fallen horse, his sword on the ground, while Christ reaches out of a break in the clouds. Around him the escort reacts. One soldier covers his eyes, another raises a shield against the glare. The dappled grey horse, pitching forward as it goes down, fills the lower half of the picture.