Massimo Stanzione
(1585 - 1656) |
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Portraiture, Mythological Narratives, Secular Narratives, Historic Narratives Art Work
| Name: |
Massimo Stanzione |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
Orta di Atella, province of Caserta |
| Nationality: |
Italian |
| Birth: |
1585 |
| Death: |
1656 |
| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
Portraiture, Mythological Narratives, Secular Narratives, Historic Narratives |
| Medium: |
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| Method: |
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| Style: |
Baroque |
| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painting
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Biography
| Generally noted as the teacher of Cavallino, Stanzione was, in fact, one of the leading Neapolitan painters during the first half of the century. A pupil of G. B. Caracciolo and F. Santafede, Stanzione traveled to Rome and studied the work of the Carracci, Guido Reni, and, of course, Caravaggio. Later Artemisia Gentileschi came to his attention. Stanzione must have been an established figure in the Neapolitan area by 1617, the year in which the poet G. B. Basile composed a madrigal praising four of his works. By October of that year, Stanzione was documented in Rome working in Santa Maria della Scala with Cavaliere d'Arpino, Roncalli, Saraceni, and Honthorst until April of the following year. The paintings from this period have been lost. Between 1625 and 1630 Stanzione was in Rome; his Pitta (signed, Rome, Galleria Corsini) must date from this period. A brilliant adaptation of both the Carracci as well as Caravaggio, it demonstrates his early tenebrist manner. Caravaggio's influence was also profound in the series of paintings depicting the Life of John the Baptist (Madrid, Prado). In 1630 Stanzione was back in Naples and gained the patronage of the monks of the Certosa di S. Marti no, for whom he painted his first major altarpiece (St. Bruno and His Brethren) for the Chapel of S. Bruno between 1633 and 1637. A simple yet effective arrangement of figures, the painting reflects the lessons he learned from Reni. He also decorated the lunettes and ceiling with frescoes depicting the life of the saint between 1633 and 1637. In 1638 he produced a Pieta for them, followed by a Last Supper in 1639. Stanzione's clearer, more luminous style of the 1630s earned him the nickname, the "Guido of Naples," though his masterful Pietd (dated 1638) pays homage to the Carracci as well as Reni but injects ordinary human emotions into a scene of transcendent spirituality. Artemisia Gentileschi's arrival in Naples in 1630 affected Stanzione's work. The two collaborated at Pozzuolt Cathedral, and Artemisia stimulated new coloration and lighting approaches in Stanzione's paintings. During the 1630s Stanzione also developed something of a specialty in female saints and heroines. One of the earliest examples is his St. Agatha in Prison (Naples, Galleria Nazionale), in which his hazy light that picks out and dissolves the form is already evident. An outstanding later example is his hauntingly serious and dignified full length Judith (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art). In 1640 he decorated the vault of the apse of the Gesil Nuovo, and between 1640 and 1642 he painted the now lost Marriage of Cana for the church of the Annunziata. The bozzetto is now in the Pinacoteca dei Girolamini, Naples. His large altarpiece showing the Healing of the Obsessed Woman (Naples, Capella del Tesoro di San Gennaro) is also documented between 1641 and 1643. Between 1643 and 1644 he frescoed the vault in the church of S. Paolo Maggiore and began the Madonna with St. Hugo for the chapel of St. John the Baptist in the Certosa di S. Martino, which he completed in 1651. In 1655 he signed and dated his Annunciation for the Chiesa dell'Ave Gratia Plena, Marcianise. In these later pictures Stanzione often increased the number of figures and added in passages of light while maintaining his gently serious mood. After 1655 there are no surviving documents for Stanzione which leads to the supposition that he died in the plague of the following year. Some nineteenth-century sources indicate that a painting in the Neapolitan church of S. Pietro in Vinculi is signed and dated 1658, but this cannot be verified because of the painting's ruinous condition. De Dominici praises Stanzione as a portrait painter, and a number of documents recording his work on portraits survives. However, few portraits by Stanzione are known today. The most notable example (which may be a genre subject) is the frankly realistic portrayal of a woman with a chicken now in the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. |
Samples of Work
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