Portrait of a Gentleman in a Red Suit
Canvas
226x121 inch
The sitter of this spectacular unpublished portrait is unfortunately not identifiable but the Spanish fashion clothes and the sword suggest that it was a member of the Lombard or southern Italian aristocracy, these two areas being at the beginning of the XNUMXth century under the control of the crown of Madrid.
The style of our canvas allows us to insert it into the Neapolitan production of the early XNUMXth century, by an artist who mastered the art of the portrait. The three great painters of this movement are Giovan Battista Caracciolo, Carlo Sellitto and Fabrizio Santafede.
If we know portraits of members of the aristocracy by the first two, Santafede is best known for his compositions on religious subjects, in which he tries to find a meeting point between the late Mannerist tradition and the new realist lesson Caravaggio. The characters in his altarpieces are thus treated with the attention “from life” that one finds in contemporary portraits.
This is why Nicola Spinosa suggests attributing our painting to Santafede, in comparison with the figures painted in 1611 for the side altars of the church of Pio Monte della Misericodia in Naples (Resurrection of the widow Tabitha and Christ at Martha and Mary). The documents attest to several orders in Santafede
by members of the Neapolitan aristocracy who asked him to decorate their family chapels but also to paint portraits: that of the Viceroy of Naples (1590 - 1595, lost), the portrait of Giovanni Andrea di Ponte (1599), or the portrait of Donna Giovanna d'Aragona (1618, also lost).
A certificate from Professor Nicolas Spinosa dated March 23, 2015 will be given to the purchaser.
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