San Biagio

The dialogue between the two Adriatic shores

The panel, preserved in the museum located in the galleries of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, dates back to the first quarter of the 16th century, and depicts San Biagio in a blessing attitude.

The saint holds in his hands the model of a city, identified with Ragusa (now Dubrovnik), in Dalmatia, a sign of the intense connection between the two shores of the Adriatic.

The presence of two praying figures in the lower part of the painting, a woman and a hooded man, has suggested the existence of an association named after the saint of which, however, at the current state of research, no trace can be found in Barletta. It is believed, however, that the panel comes from the church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The author of the panel is unknown: it was long thought to be the painter active in Puglia and known as "Maestro ZT", author of works in which multiple artistic languages merge. Nowadays the painting has been more cautiously traced back to an anonymous Dalmatian artist.

The work must have had some importance in the city considering that, at the end of the sixteenth century, a San Biagio carved in wood appeared on the choir stalls of the church of Sant'Andrea which seems to derive from this very painting