Altarpiece of St. Benedict

Abstract

The attribution of the Altarpiece of St. Benedict to Niccolò Ferrando is based on its comparison to the Altarpiece of St. Catherine, also located in Santa Caterina at Galatina, and to the Mausoleum in Otranto. The sculpture has been almost entirely stripped of its original polychromy, revealing instead the underlying stone from Lecce. Scant traces of paint are still visible, most noticeably the black of St. Benedict's beard. Traces of paint on the bottom of St. Benedict's robes indicate that they were originally white, the colour of the Olivetan Benedictine monks, whose coat-of-arms are inscribed above the statue. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.