Italian school (XVIII) - Epigrafe devozionale






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Epigrafe devozionale is an unsigned, 18th‑century Italian oil painting on canvas, 103 × 38 cm, produced by an Italian school, sold with a frame.
Description from the seller
Antique painting
Devotional epigraph on canvas
Italian School of the eighteenth century
“Miseremini mei, miseremini mei, saltem vos amici mei”
Description
The work presents itself as a large painted inscription on canvas, with a black background and a linear golden frame delimiting the writing field. The text, in elegant golden capitals, reads:
MISEREMINI
MEI, MISEREMINI MEI
SALTEM VOS AMICI MEI
In the bottom right corner appears the abbreviated quotation “Job. 19,” a reference to the Book of Job.
The color choice – gold on black – recalls the tradition of funerary epigraphs and convent inscriptions, lending solemnity and a strong visual impact. The letters, well spaced and regular, show a seventeenth-/eighteenth-century handwriting taste, inspired by the Roman lapidary capitals but interpreted with painterly softness.
⸻
Text and meaning
The phrase comes from the Book of Job (19:21) in the Latin Vulgate:
“Miseremini mei, miseremini mei, saltem vos amici mei”
“Pity me, pity me, at least you, my friends.”
It is the anguished supplication of Job, a righteous man struck by suffering, who turns to his friends asking for compassion.
In the devotional context of the eighteenth century, this verse assumed a double meaning:
• An invitation to Christian mercy
• A meditation on pain and human fragility
• A call to solidarity among brothers or members of a religious community
Dimensions: 103 x 38 cm
* condition report: work in good conservation condition with various signs of time and previous restorations (on the back a repair is visible)
Given the importance of the work, it will be shipped only with secure packaging and insured shipment for the estimated value / shipment in a wooden crate
Seller's Story
Antique painting
Devotional epigraph on canvas
Italian School of the eighteenth century
“Miseremini mei, miseremini mei, saltem vos amici mei”
Description
The work presents itself as a large painted inscription on canvas, with a black background and a linear golden frame delimiting the writing field. The text, in elegant golden capitals, reads:
MISEREMINI
MEI, MISEREMINI MEI
SALTEM VOS AMICI MEI
In the bottom right corner appears the abbreviated quotation “Job. 19,” a reference to the Book of Job.
The color choice – gold on black – recalls the tradition of funerary epigraphs and convent inscriptions, lending solemnity and a strong visual impact. The letters, well spaced and regular, show a seventeenth-/eighteenth-century handwriting taste, inspired by the Roman lapidary capitals but interpreted with painterly softness.
⸻
Text and meaning
The phrase comes from the Book of Job (19:21) in the Latin Vulgate:
“Miseremini mei, miseremini mei, saltem vos amici mei”
“Pity me, pity me, at least you, my friends.”
It is the anguished supplication of Job, a righteous man struck by suffering, who turns to his friends asking for compassion.
In the devotional context of the eighteenth century, this verse assumed a double meaning:
• An invitation to Christian mercy
• A meditation on pain and human fragility
• A call to solidarity among brothers or members of a religious community
Dimensions: 103 x 38 cm
* condition report: work in good conservation condition with various signs of time and previous restorations (on the back a repair is visible)
Given the importance of the work, it will be shipped only with secure packaging and insured shipment for the estimated value / shipment in a wooden crate
