3-098-332 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The bestowal of the chasuble upon Saint Ildefonso, c1600. Alternative title: Saint Ildefonso receiving the Chasuble. Scene from the life of Ildefonso (607-667 AD/CE), Archbishop of Toledo and patron saint of the city, who experienced a vision in which the Virgin Mary appeared to him and gave him a sacred chasuble. Ildefonso was a staunch defender of the Virgin Mary's virginity. The image of the kneeling saint, covered with an alb - and in this example also with a dalmatic - receiving the glorious chasuble from Mary, is completed by the representation of angels and an addition widely disseminated in Toledo during the second half of the 16th century: the old woman holding the lit candle she obtained while fortunate enough to witness the miracle and kept afterward for the hour of her death. The woman's defined features suggest a portrait. This fact, along with the dimensions of the canvas, suggests that the composition may have been commissioned specifically, most likely in Toledo.