''The Patron Saints of the Crotta Family'' is a 1750 oil painting by the Italian artist

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (August 30, 1727March 3, 1804) was an Italian painter and printmaker in etching. He was the son of artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and elder brother of Lorenzo Baldissera Tiepolo. Life history Domenico was born in ...

. The work depicts the legend of St. Grata, supposedly an ancestor of the Crotta family. Grata, accompanied by the martyrs

Firmus and Rusticus Saints Firmus and Rusticus ( it, San Fermo e San Rustico) (died c. 290 AD) are venerated as two martyrs of Verona. Their unreliable ''Acts'' state that Firmus and Rusticus, kinsmen, were prominent citizens of Bergamo. They were martyred at Vero ...

, presents her pagan father with the head of

Alexander of Bergamo Saint Alexander of Bergamo (died c. 303) is the patron saint of Bergamo, as well as Capriate San Gervasio and Cervignano d'Adda. Alexander may have been a Roman soldier or resident of Bergamo who was tortured and killed for not renouncing his Chr ...

. Instead of blood flowing from the disembodied head, flowers bloom from the wound. Having seen this miraculous sight, Grata's father embraces Christianity and introduces it to

Bergamo Bergamo (; lmo, Bèrghem ; from the proto- Germanic elements *''berg +*heim'', the "mountain home") is a city in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from Switzerland, the alpine lakes Como ...

. The Crotta family, Bergamese transplants to

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

, were looking to burnish their Venetian social standing with this painting.

References

1750 paintings {{18C-painting-stub