CAPPELLA, Francesco - b. 1711 Venezia, d. 1774 Bergamo

Italian painter, also known as Daggiù, one of the most famous student of Piazzetta. His first notable painting is the Madonna and Saints from 1740 (San Marco della Pietà, Venice). The Beheading of St Eurosia can be dated after 1744 (Udine, Museo Civico), after 1744 he worked in the church Sant’Andrea in Cortona on the altarpiece Immaculate Conception with St Margaret. In 1749 he executed three paintings for the parochial church in Alzano Maggiore (Triumph of the Cross, St Apollonia, St Lucy), then in 1757 a Magdalen in the same church. In 1757, invited by the Count Giacomo Carrara, he moved to Bergamo where the majority of his later works can be found: Self-Portrait (Galleria Carrara), Christ on the Way to Calvary (1774), The Martyrdom of St Catherine, David and the Lion (all in Sant’Alessandro della Croce), Pentecost (in Santa Maria della Pace), Sts Augustine and Monica (in Santo Spirito).

Miracle of San Francesco da Paola

Ordered from Piazzetta by the priest Ubaldo Fracassini, this canvas was painted by one of the most famous student of the master, Francesco Cappella, also known as Daggiù. It was painted for the church of San Filippo in Cortona.

The painting depicts a miracle of San Francesco da Paola, who, with a gesture of his hand, saves a mason who has fallen from a scaffolding. The workers, busy with their work are unaware of the occurrence. Above the fallen mason, dramatic whirling of wings and light burst out of the darkness.