The Amazing Adventures of Archibald Esq.
Dogs in Fable: Saint Roch and the Dog
Saint Roch is also known as St Rock, St Rocco, St Rollox, St. Roque, St. Rochus. His saint day is the 16th of August - so today there should be parties, cake, dog biscuits and lots of iced tea with honey and lemon to celebrate the memory of St Roch and a saintly hound. Awoof!
St Roch was a French nobleman born in 1294 at Montpelier who, despite his privileged circumstances, developed a sympathy for the poor and the sick. Whilst on pilgrimage he encountered an area inflicted with plague, and stayed to minister to the sick. Sadly Roch contracted the disease himself. Wanting to isolate himself so as not to spread plague, Roch walked deep into a forest to die. In the forest, alone and preparing for his death, Roch was befriended by a dog. The dog refused to leave Roch to die, and would return to his master’s house to steal food from his master’s table to bring back to Roch every day. Eventually, as a result of the dog’s ministrations and kind looks of love, Roch recovered.
When Roch returned to France from his pilgrimage he was charged with spying, and languished in jail for five years. Roch never mentioned his noble connections in order to free himself from these false allegations. While in jail it is said that he was cared for by an angel before he died in 1327. Presumably the angel was taking over from where the hound left off! Awoof.
St Roch is the pan-European patron saint of all those with cholera and other epidemics, as well as patron saint of diseased cattle and dogs, falsely accused people, and invalids. Appeal to St Roch is said to relieve pestilence, skin diseases and rashes.
In art iconography Saint Roch is represented with a dog, as a pilgrim with a staff, often displaying a plague sore on his leg. Occasionally the dog is shown licking the plague spot. The choice of the type of dog represented is often left to the artist - some appear as hounds whilst others seem to represent poodles or spaniels. But of course, as you all know, all dogs, houndish or not, are saintly by their very natures!
The painting by Paolo Morando (c1486/8 – 1522) of Verona portrays Saint Roch, a pilgrim, with his dog at the lower right hand of the tableau. St Roch is shown with an ulcerated thigh, caused by plague; he had been turned out of Piacenza, but his faithful dog brought him a loaf of bread every day and an angel tended his wound. I, Archibald Esquire, take it to imply that the earthly angel is the dog!
This was the left wing of a triptych in Santa Maria della Scala, Verona, but is now held by the National Gallery, London. As a triptych is a painting in three parts - sometimes hinged, like a bedroom vanity mirror in three parts, and occasionally the left and right wings of the painting would close in on the third, and most mysterious, image in the centre - curious hounds might want to know about the other two pieces. The other wing (left side) was a portrait of Saint Sebastian by Francesco di Marco India Torbido (now missing), and the centrepiece was Gerolamo dai Libris’ Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, also in the National Gallery’s collection.
What we can take from this placing of the images of this particular triptych is that the artists saw it fit to represent the dog as being at the close right hand side of the divine Child. (Which makes me somewhat puzzled by all the bad press us dogs get in dog-sayings, when dogs in art clearly show our essential bond and good nature, upon which human beings have relied for centuries). I’m starting to think truth is to be found in pictures and not in words, but more of that later!
Superwoof to Saint Roch and his saintly dog! Archie
Posted 16 Aug 06
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