The collection of the Sakha Republic National Art Museum features a 17th-century painting by an unknown Spanish master “A Saint’s Death.” This period in history is considered the golden age of Spanish art and is closely associated with such names of great masters as El Greco, Diego Velazquez, Francisco de Zurbaran, Jusepe de Ribera, Bartolome Esteban Murillo and Francisco Goya. However, by the end of the century, the overall skill level began to plummet.

The composition of the painting is difficult to understand, and therefore it should be considered in the context of the culture of that time. Catholicism in Spain during that period played a big role in the life of the country. All the art was basically dedicated to Catholic religious ideas and was taken literally by society. The main customer of the art in that period was the church.

The canvas presented in the exhibition was conceived by its painter as a moralizing one. Speaking about the inevitability of human death, the artist clearly divides the work into two parts, depicting scenes of this sacred moment in two Spanish families. The hero of the first part is reclining in a simple room surrounded by close people gathered at the bedside. Those present are saying goodbye to a man who has lived a righteous life; they are filled with piety. A flying angel of death with a palm branch and a wreath stands above the saint in a golden heavenly opening. Next to it is a completely different variation of the same plot, immersed in twilight. The scene that is played out here tells about the inevitability of punishment for terrible sins and about the fear of death. In a rich setting on a four-poster bed, the sinner turns away in horror from the fiends who have come after his soul. Two people are feasting at a table nearby. Below, on the carpet in front of a large chest, two ladies are depicted in a violent scuffle for its contents.

Such a moralizing painting was understandable to the artist’s contemporaries, being, among other things, an example of a sermon about the reward for virtue and the inevitability of punishment for all sins in life.