Offered by La Crédence
High relief sculpture (carved from a single block of oak?) Representing Saint Roch. Very beautiful polychromy and original needle gilding.
Saint Roch is a French pilgrim and miracle worker, born in Montpellier in 1350. He experienced the terrible plague epidemics of 1358 and 1361. Orphaned at the age of 17, rich and educated, he left for Rome. He distributed his fortune to the poor, and put on the habit of a pilgrim, and along the way he obtained many healings of sick people affected by disease.
Touched himself, he was on the verge of death in Sarmato. At the edge of the village, a spring gushed out and a dog brought him bread every day, he recovered his health, and set out again on the road, but he was taken for a spy by the Visconti, then in the midst of war between the Duke of Milan and the league formed by Urbain V. He died in prison in 1379.
Patron of pilgrims, and of many brotherhoods or corporations, he is also the protector of animals.
Good condition, and remarkable conservation of the polychromy and the gilding.
South of France or Spain, late 16th early 17th.