1843 -1891 · Bible, martyrs and visions

From Maccabees to Ecce Homo, Antonio Ciseri renews religious painting through the clarity of the story, the accuracy of the bodies and the points of view which involve the spectator.

Antonio Ciseri approached religious painting from his competitive exams at the Academy of Florence. His Saint John reproaching Herod and Herodias for his conduct, awarded in 1843, announces a method based on the moral readability of the gesture. The Martyrdom of the Maccabees, begun in 1852 for Santa Felicita and completed a decade later, deploys architecture, executioners, victims and family in a monumental ensemble. This work marks the transition from initial romanticism towards a firmer construction, attentive to anatomical truth. In Mary Magdalene Penitent, the grand narrative gives way to a solitary figure where hair, hands and gaze make up the interior act of repentance. The Dream of Saint Joseph treats revelation in a sleeping space, through the difference between abandoned body and angelic presence. The Immaculate Conception develops the image of worship, while Ecce Homo transforms the judgment of Christ into a scene observed from Pilate's palace. Ciseri also commissioned Switzerland, Florence and the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem. Professor and temporary director of the Academy, he thus transmits a sacred painting which preserves the great Florentine profession while adopting modern observation. The selection "Religious works of Antonio Ciseri" notably compares Saint Felicity and the martyrdom of the Maccabees and Mary Magdalene penitent. His reading favor the material.

Ciseri's religion is told through visible situations: accusation, dreams, repentance and judgment each have their own space and gesture.