The Foundation Mass of the Trinitarian Order

In 1666 Pope Alexander VII confirmed the cult of John of Matha, a priest from Provence who in 1198 had founded the Trinitarian order to ransom Christians held captive. The same year two Madrid painters working as a team, Juan Carreño de Miranda and Francisco Rizi, painted this altarpiece, five metres tall, for the Discalced Trinitarians of Pamplona, in Navarre. Only Carreño signed it. It shows John saying his first Mass in Paris, in the chapel of the bishop Maurice de Sully. As he raises the host, an angel appears with its arms crossed over two kneeling captives and reveals his mission. The Trinity hovers above.

In 1794, when Spanish troops razed the outskirts of Pamplona during the war with France, the canvas was moved to safety. Before 1836 it was hanging in the church of Saint-Roch in Paris. It later belonged to the dukes of Padua at the château of Courson, and in 1964 the Comtesse de Caraman gave it to the Louvre.