God the Father, at the center of the scene, wrapped in a large dark cloak, holds the lifeless body of Jesus in his arms, almost as if to display his Son's sacrifice for the salvation of mankind. Between the heads of the Eternal One and Jesus, the dove of the Holy Spirit completes the iconography of the Holy Trinity. Around, groups of angels hold the symbols of the Passion, offering them to the viewer's gaze, seeking their participation.
This is a singular iconography of the Holy Trinity, after which the church, adjacent to the Poor Clare Monastery of Montalto, was dedicated. However, the painting, which was the altarpiece of the main altar, appears to be several years earlier, fitting perfectly into the figurative culture of the late 16th century, within the so-called "Sistine" style, which originated from the great Roman art movements of the time of Pope Sixtus V.
The painting is of the highest quality, but cannot be attributed with certainty to one of the numerous important painters active in Rome in those years, not only because of the extraordinary and archaic iconographic conception of the Trinitarian scene, but also because of the surprising landscape view in the lower section, where an extraordinary sensitivity to light highlights a profound view, perhaps of the city of Jerusalem, comparable to the inventions of Flemish landscape artists such as Paul Brill.
Particularly significant is the choice of subject, likely made by the Poor Clare nuns, a choice that attests to the Order's great devotion to the Trinity, a devotion strongly present in Franciscan spirituality, documented and supported already in the words of Saint Francis: "Blessed be the Trinity and the indivisible Unity: we will praise it, because it has worked its mercy among us" (Prayer to the Holy Trinity).
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