altar, and, after praying, pierced it with a knife, and blood flowed from it as from a living body. In 1771, a mosaic copy of this painting was made for the Basilica of St Peter's. This painting echoes positions stated in the canons of the Council of Trent: wherein relics had an important role in miracles, the pope served as the final interpreter of sanctity, and finally it was a metaphor of the validity of the eucharist as the true body of Christ. Vision of St. Romuald Completed in 1631, this painting in the Pinacoteca Vaticana recalls an episode in the life of the early Benedictine monk, Saint Romuald, of the Camaldolese Order, who is said to have dreamt that members of his Order wearing white ascended into heaven (as seen in background). The serenity and gravity of the monks, arrayed as in philosophic discourse, is characteristic of Sacchi. Other works Other leading examples of Sacchi's work are The Death of St. Anne, in San Carlo ai Catinari, Rome; St. Andrew, in the Quirinal Palace; St. Joseph, at Caponile Case; and The Three Marys (1634), at Palazzo Barberini, Rome. The Birth of St. John the Baptist and a Portrait of Francesco Albani among other interesting works at the Prado Museum, Madrid. Other altarpieces by Sacchi are in Perugia, Foligno and Camerino. Notes 1.For a long time, Sacchi scholarship believed the painter was born in Nettuno, but this information is now regarded as incorrect following many academic studies such as those by Ann Sutherland Harris. As far as Andrea Sacchi's birth in Rome and not in Nettuno is concerned, see Ann Sutherland Harris, "Andrea Sacchi", L'idea del bello: viaggio per Roma nel Seicento con Giovan Pietro Bellori, exh. cat. edited by E. Borea and C. Gasparri, Rome (Palazzo delle Esposizioni), Roma: De Luca, 2000, vol. II, 2 vols., p.442-444. Sacchi's death in Rome is proven by his will, now at the State Archives in Rome. The will has been transcribed and may be found in Antonio D'avossa, Andrea Sacchi, Roma: Kappa, 1985. References External links Web Gallery of Art entry 1599 births 1661 deaths Painters from Rome 17th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Italian Baroque painters