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Titolo: Il martirio di San Gennaro |
| Anno: 1685 circa | |
| Tecnica: Olio su tela | |
| Dimensioni: 61 7/16 x 80 11/16 | |
| Città: Washington D.C. | |
| Collocazione: National Gallery of Art |
Saint Gennaro, or ]anuarius, a third-century bishop of Benevento, was martyred in the persecution of Diocletian. After being thrown to the wild beasts in the amphitheater at Pozzuoli, who refused to harm him, he was beheaded. A woman named Eusebia collected his blood in a vial, which is preserved today in the Duomo of Naples. The annual miraculous liquefaction of the blood when occurring on the saint’s feast day is a favorable portent for the city.
The Martyrdom of Saint Gennaro is recognized as a masterpiece in Preti’s late style, which is characterized by a limited range of colors, but no lessening of the master’s expressive power. The executioner and a dark-robed official gaze in amazement at Saint Gennaro’s serenity even after death, his bishop’s cope and mitre gleaming with an aura of gold. A young Christian acolyte tenderly holds in place the severed head, as if the bishop were quietly sleeping.
A date in the mid-1680s is indicated for this painting by its close comparison to Preti’s passion cycle on the ceiling of the Oratory of Saint ]ohn’s, Valletta (1683) and his St. Sebastian altarpiece in San Domenico, Taverna, of 1687. The composition of the present work, recently come to light, was already known from an autograph replica that was exhibited at the Palazzo Pitti in 1922 and is now in the Thyssen Museum in Madrid. The composition described by Bernardo De Dominici (1742-1743) in the Gagliano collection in Naples may be the same as one of these two existing versions.
The Martyrdom of Saint Gennaro is recognized as a masterpiece in Preti’s late style, which is characterized by a limited range of colors, but no lessening of the master’s expressive power. The executioner and a dark-robed official gaze in amazement at Saint Gennaro’s serenity even after death, his bishop’s cope and mitre gleaming with an aura of gold. A young Christian acolyte tenderly holds in place the severed head, as if the bishop were quietly sleeping.
A date in the mid-1680s is indicated for this painting by its close comparison to Preti’s passion cycle on the ceiling of the Oratory of Saint ]ohn’s, Valletta (1683) and his St. Sebastian altarpiece in San Domenico, Taverna, of 1687. The composition of the present work, recently come to light, was already known from an autograph replica that was exhibited at the Palazzo Pitti in 1922 and is now in the Thyssen Museum in Madrid. The composition described by Bernardo De Dominici (1742-1743) in the Gagliano collection in Naples may be the same as one of these two existing versions.
John T. Spike
A BRUSH WITH PASSION – Mattia Preti (1613 – 1699), Firenze, 2013
A BRUSH WITH PASSION – Mattia Preti (1613 – 1699), Firenze, 2013
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