Matilda of Canossa Kneeling before Saint Longinus and Saint Andrew

The fresco is linked to the cult of the Precious Blood of Christ, with an iconography that exalts a purely Mantuan devotion connected to the place of origin of the relic: the Basilica of Sant'Andrea. Inside the central shield decorated with frames, shells, festoons and volutes there is the figure of San Longino in arms holding the spear with his right hand and with the left the Sacred Vase containing the precious Blood. In front of him, standing, there is Saint Andrew who revealed to Blessed Adalbert, a blind servant of the house Canossa, the location of the relic (1048). Between the two saints two kneeling figures: Matilde of Canossa in the foreground and a man portrayed in late adulthood who may be her father Bonifacio of Canossa. A third kneeling figure can be seen behind Saint Longinus and could be Beatrice of Lotharingia, second wife of Boniface and mother of Matilda. The author could be Bartolomeo Dall'Acqua (L'Occaso, 2007) a painter from Piacenza who was active in Mantua in important works of the eighteenth century, such as that of the Cattanea Chapel, whose motifs and figures recall those of the fresco under examination.