Feeding the Ten Thousand

The etching was created for the treatise In selecta scripturae loca ethicae commentationes, written by the General of the Jesuit Order, Giovanni Paolo Oliva, and is based on a work by the famed Baroque sculptor and architect, Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Spierre worked after Bernini repeatedly. The cooperation between the two artists resulted in the frontispiece on the subject The Sermon of St John the Baptist, part of Oliva’s treatise Prediche dette nel Palazzo Apostolico. Spierre is also the author of one of the most valuable graphic renditions of The See of Peter. His transcription of Bernini?s famous drawing, entitled The Blood of Jesus Christ, is of equal importance.