Mattia Preti

San Bruno. Oil on canvas, 100x73 cm. Provenance: Venice, Semenzato, 05 March 1995. Mattia Preti was the last painter who interpreted with tenacity and conviction the lesson of Caravaggio, through a meditation on the production of Lanfranco, Guercino and Battistello Caracciolo, giving life to a particular chiaroscuro and plastic volume style able to merge absolute strength to the protagonists of his compositions. Preti s style is essential, livid, powerfully dramatic, able to shape figures through light. Arriving in Rome in 1636 to reach his elder brother Gregorio, he remained there until 1653, when he moved to Naples where he stayed until the 1660. He moved to Malta and remain there until his death, innovating in baroque culture local art. In light of this artistic process, although simplified here, it is possible to place the execution of the work examined in the Neapolitan period, more precisely in the last years around 1657-58, while it was active in the highest artistic enterprise of its life, the cycle of the ceiling of San Pietro a Maiella. As a matter of fact, the relevance of the canvas depicting the Glory of St. Peter Celestine is so marked, so much so that our canvas seems to repeat almost identically, albeit in contrast, the detail of the bust of the hermit priest.

cm 100x73