St Secundus and Angel

Painted in 1637, during Strozzi's Venetian decade, this canvas depicts the little-known Saint Secundus of Asti, a Roman soldier-martyr executed in Piedmont around 119 AD. Strozzi had moved to Venice around 1630 to escape legal pressure in Genoa, and the Serenissima's wealthy devotional market rewarded his ability to invest obscure saints with vivid personality. The celestial messenger hovering beside the armoured Secundus gives the composition a theatrical Baroque energy that Venetian collectors prized. Strozzi had absorbed the lessons of Titian and Veronese since his arrival, and the canvas reveals his synthesis: the saint's armour is painted with a near-Flemish attention to metallic sheen, while the angel's drapery swirls with Venetian painterly freedom. The Hermitage acquired this work as part of the vast collection assembled under Catherine the Great, who swept up numerous Italian Baroque works from European estates during the late eighteenth century.

The armour of Saint Secundus is rendered with layered glazes over a warm grey ground, creating convincing metallic lustre. Strozzi contrasts the hard surfaces of the breastplate with the soft impasto of the angel's flesh and ruffled wings. A diagonal axis linking the angel's outreached hand to the saint's upward gaze organises the composition within an upright format.