Technique: oil on canvas Dimensions: 100x76 cm The painting depicts St. Paul of Thebes who was the first Christian hermit who chose to live in the Egyptian desert to escape persecution by the Roman emperor Decius. As in the case of Elijah in the desert, St Paul was also fed daily by a crow (which is clearly visible in the upper left-hand corner of the painting) that carried a piece of bread in its beak. The work recalls in its representational pathos the work of Giacinto Guardi, from whom the Roman painter drew his inspiration, and can be traced back to a series of half-length paintings by Troppa such as the portraits of Homer and Virgil and the weeping St. Peter now in the Staten Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen.