Santa Rosalia

Van Dyck was a young Flemish painter passing through Palermo in Sicily in 1624 when the plague struck and the city was sealed off. In the middle of that outbreak the bones of Saint Rosalia, a medieval hermit who had lived in a cave on the mountain above the city, were rediscovered and carried through the streets as protection, and her cult exploded. Kept in place by the quarantine, Van Dyck painted her again and again. Here she kneels among clouds with angels, a skull in one hand as a reminder of death and a crown of roses for her name. He made around six of these Rosalia pictures in a matter of months. This version later entered a Genoese collection and was bought for the Spanish royal collection by Philip IV in 1664.