Saint Philip Neri (San Felipe Neri)
- unknown artist
- José de Nava, Mexican, c. 1735-1817
- Work Locations: Puebla, Mexico
- Active Dates: 1750-1817
Unknown artist, Saint Philip Neri (San Felipe Neri), 1750-1799. Engraving; 7¼ × 5 in. Gift of the Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer, 2013.342.
Saint Philip Neri (1515-1595) was born to the Florentine nobility but rejected his birthright to dedicate himself to the needy. After moving to Rome in the 1530s, Neri helped found a confraternity to minister to the needs of poor pilgrims and the infirm. His lifelong service to the indigent and marginalized earned him the title “the Apostle of Rome.” The rocaille cartouche at the bottom of the frame contains an inscription referring to Neri’s foundation of the Oratory, a community for secular priests who took no vows (unlike monks). The inscription at the top in Latin (“A shining burning light”) derives from the Gospel of John (5:35) and refers to the ardor of divine love that Philip Neri experienced in a moment of religious ecstasy.
The signature “Nava sc.” suggests that engraving was likely produced by José de Nava, a prominent engraver active in Puebla, Mexico in the second half of the 1700s. Little is known of Nava’s biography, though he was a prolific producer of religious engravings, family crests, and allegorical images. This image may have been sold as a single sheet or intended for a printed devotional text like a novena or a vida (religious biography).
– Kathryn Santner, Frederick and Jan Mayer Fellow of Spanish Colonial Art, 2022
- Exhibited, 2007, Sangre de Cristo Arts Center, Pueblo, CO.
