An art history professor from Whitestone made a remarkable discovery of a long-missing liturgically themed masterpiece from the 17th century during a random visit to a New Rochelle church in 2020.
Thomas Ruggio, the director and associate professor of visual arts at Iona University, walked into the Church of the Holy Family and began meditating. As he scanned the artwork, he noticed a painting and immediately sensed it was a lost masterpiece from Italy.
“I had been in the church a few times before and never noticed the painting because the lights were always turned down, but that day I noticed and I couldn’t believe it,” Ruggio said. “The painting just caught my eye. It seemed out of place in a local church.”
Ruggio was correct. His investigation proved it to be “Holy Family with the Infant St. John,” the third in a series of four works from elusive Baroque artist Cesare Dandini. The painting had been missing for decades.
The professor will tell his story and more during a presentation at St. John’s University’s Hillcrest campus at 1:50 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 29, in the D’Angelo Center Ballroom.
Ruggio is an expert on 16th- and 17th-century European art and has curated a host of exhibitions in the past. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Queens College. The professor says Holy Family with the Infant St. John was painted around the year 1630 and was one of several biblical masterpieces from the Florence, Italy-based artist who lived from 1596 to 1657. How it wound up in metropolitan New York remains a mystery.
Ruggio said the most likely explanation is that a former pastor at the church, Monsignor Charles Fitzgerald, purchased the painting while in Europe in the early 1960s — meaning it hung in the New Rochelle church for six decades before Ruggio spotted it.
“Holy Family with the Infant St. John” depicts the Virgin Mary, her husband Joseph and the Christ child meeting St. John the Baptist, described as a cousin of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke.
“The connection to the infant St. John makes this the perfect St. John’s University event,” said Amy Gansell, Ph.D., associate professor of art history in St. John’s Department of Art and Design.
Ruggio explained that it was not unusual for masterpieces such as Dandini’s to sell in the 1960s for a fraction of their current worth.
“In 1961 or so, you could buy an old master for less than you think; the market didn’t really take off until the 2000s,” Riggio said. “So it’s not unreasonable to think Monsignor Fitzgerald could have purchased it.”
After coming across the masterpiece, Ruggio took cellphone photos and sent them to colleagues in Italy and Manhattan for authentication. The identification of the find became a global story in the world of art history.
“It was a slam dunk,” Ruggio said. “Mr. Dandini had used these figures at least four other times. The authentication process was made easier by his process of reviving the figures.”
Dandini, experts say, was one of the most sought-after artists of his age, often painting religious or allegorical works for Europe’s wealthy, including the Medici family. He is noted for using bright colors and elegant compositions, according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“Holy Family with the Infant St. John,” which measures 46 by 57 inches, remains in the New Rochelle church. The original will not be part of the professor’s presentation, but he will have images of it.
A sister painting by Dandini, “Charity,” is housed at the Met in Manhattan; another, “Holy Family,” is found in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. The location of the fourth painting remains a mystery.
“It’s such a great story for our St. John’s community and everyone, really,” Dr. Gansell said. “Sometimes with these masterworks, their origin stories seem to get lost — but they’re not lost, they’re misplaced, and sometimes they are right in front of us.”
The public is invited to hear the story of Ruggio’s find. For those unable to attend, the lecture will be livestreamed. For more information, contact Dr. Gansell by phone at 718-990-5600 or via email gansella@stjohns.edu.
