no lot

Oil painting on canvas depicting St. Francis of Paola in prayer.
Work without frame.

"The canvas is attributable to the painter who worked in Naples in the seventeenth century, Francesco Fracanzano (Monopoli, 9 July 1612 - Naples, 1656) and represents San Francesco di Paola in prayer , with the typical iconographic attributes of the Saint consisting of the habit, the book (in which we read in part "Charitas") with a skull on top, placed at the bottom and side of the figure. The painting has the typical characters ascribable to Fracanzano such as the full and lumpy material density, the color of the skin and of the hands that turns towards a reddish, which highlights a naturalism of Caravaggesque matrix that partly belongs to the teachings of the Ribera school but to which it adds the tonal values and the design of Guercino, of the Carraccis as well as by Reni himself. The work is attributable to the period of Fracanzano's pictorial experience more contiguous to the example of Ribera. A very similar work is exhibited at the Dubrovinik Museum (Croatia), with some differences z and (reported in parallel in this sheet with the use of the image for comparison) concerning the position of the book, placed vertically and with the pages squared, the skull in the background, the composition that seems to have become more lumpy, accentuating the ribesque structure, the kneeling figure of the saint is seen in full. For the work taken in comparison, entirely referable to the same author, for a purely philological need, we point out a detailed study that highlighted that "the second half of the seventeenth century, St. Francis of Paola of Dubrovnik, where the revival of the ribesque characters in the face subsides in the drafting of the soft and wide folds of the habit, which cover the entire composition and allow for this combination a valid comparison both with works by Francesco Fracanzano, such as with the San Benedetto di San Gregorio Armeno and the San Paolo eremita of the church of Sant'Onofrio dei Vecchi in Naples, both with the mature production of Angelo Solimena and with the youthful production of his son Francesco, especially regarding the revival of Lanfranco's ways "(On the traces of Neapolitan painting in Croatia between six and eighteenth centuries by Mario Alberto Pavone - University of Palermo). But it should be emphasized that many works referring to figures of Saints, passed from the antiques market and contained in private and museum collections, created by Francesco Fracanzano, present the same expressive setting and similar pictorial and compositional qualities, confirming the validity of the attribution to the same. painter. The painting retains the original frame of the seventeenth century; A very old relining from the mid-nineteenth century has been maintained which, being in good condition, has not been replaced (nor raised for other purposes). "

Thanks to Dr. Avv. Francesco Amato for his authoritative opinion.