The Barnabites' Contribution: Veneration, Art, and Politics in the Representations of St. Carlo Borromeo in Bologna

Soon after the canonization of St. Carlo Borromeo, Cardinal Benedetto Giustiniani commissioned Lorenzo Garbieri to create three paintings for one of the chapels in the newly-erected Barnabite church of San Paolo Maggiore in the center of Bologna, with scenes taken from the new saint's life. This was the first chapel to be decorated in the church. Here, as will be argued below, one may find the seeds of what eventually became common in representations of the saint: Barnabite propaganda meant to accentuate not only the saint himself and his important altruistic deeds, but also the order's part in those deeds, as well as the connections between the saint and the Barnabites. An emphasis is given to the Barnabites' participation in the very deeds that became associated with the saint and through which he became known during his lifetime as a living saint.