Santa Prassede by Felice Ficherelli. Bardi-Serzelli version. Digitally enhanced version. by Frank Zuidam

This painting of Saint Praxedis would appear to be the prime version of the composition, which is known primarily in two other variants. One is another autograph version by Felice Ficherelli, which was formerly in the collection of Carlo del Bravo in Florence, and is now in a private collection in Ferrara (oil on canvas, 108 x 80 cm, see fig. 2), and the other is the celebrated copy of the composition which has been given to Johannes Vermeer (Delft 1632-1675), and was sold recently at Christie’s, London. (oil on canvas, 101.6 x 81.6 cm., 8 July 2014, lot 39, for € 7.900. 000, see fig. 1). Both these two versions were exhibited recently in Rome (see literature). Vermeer’s Saint Praxedis was hung alongside the del Bravo Ferrara version, which has been widely considered to be the prototype and the model for Vermeer’s painting. However, it is possible that another version of the composition might have served as the actual model.

Arthur Wheelock believes that the version of this composition copied by Vermeer is his earliest dated work and an exploratory painting by a young artist who had recently converted to the Catholic faith and who had a proven interest in contemporary Italian art (see A. K. Wheelock, St. Praxedis: New Light on the Early Career of Vermeer in: Artibus et Historiae, vol. 7, no. 14, 1986, pp. 71-89). The present composition must have exerted a strong impact on Vermeer, not just on artistic grounds, but also on account of its devotional character.

Vermeer would have had access to Italian paintings, even if he did not visit Italy itself, but it must be asked why he decided to copy a composition by Ficherelli. The possibility always exists that he was commissioned to paint it. Even if he were not, the subject may have had a special appeal for him as St. Praxedis was one of a number of Roman saints who enjoyed a popularity among Jesuits of the seventeenth century as they sought to emphasise the early traditions of the Catholic Church. Vermeer’s interest in Jesuit ideas at the time must have been acute. Although he had been baptised in the Reformed Church, he married into a Catholic family in 1653 and seems to have converted to Catholicism shortly before that date. He named his youngest son Ignatius and had ties with the Jesuits throughout his life. The subject of Saint Praxedis