

St Joseph’s feast day is keenly felt in Italy, where his is the second most popular name, whether Giuseppe, Beppe, Pippo and more. On March 19 the Vatican closes, and pastry shop windows are piled high with mountains of bigne di San Giuseppe, deep fried cream puffs dusted with powdered sugar. But nowhere do Italians feel his ubiquitous presence as patron of the Universal Church — watching over families, workers, or the moribund — than in art, where Joseph’s many guises…