300px, ''Saint John the Baptist'' (c. 1653-1656) by Mattia Preti ''Saint John the Baptist'' is a c.1653-1656 oil on canvas painting by

Mattia Preti Mattia Preti (24 February 1613 – 3 January 1699) was an Italian Baroque artist who worked in Italy and Malta. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Saint John. Life Born in the small town of Taverna in Calabria, Preti was called ''Il Cava ...

, now in the

Museo nazionale di Capodimonte Museo di Capodimonte is an art museum located in the Palace of Capodimonte, a grand Bourbon palazzo in Naples, Italy. The museum is the prime repository of Neapolitan painting and decorative art, with several important works from other Italian ...

in Naples. Nicola Spinosa, Mattia Preti. ''Tra Roma, Napoli e Malta'', Napoli, Electa, 1999, ISBN 978-8851001292, p. 132. It shows the saint in a pose that became typical in Preti's work, using foreshortening,

chiaroscuro Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...

, and several red colours, especially in the saint's cloak. He had already used this treatment of the human figure in the lunette frescoes at the church of San Biagio in

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

, whose Saint John the Baptist seems to be a prototype for the work now in Naples. That treatment later reached its apogee in his ''

Saint Sebastian Saint Sebastian (in Latin: ''Sebastianus''; Narbo, Gallia Narbonensis, Roman Empire c. AD 255 – Rome, Italia, Roman Empire c. AD 288) was an early Christian saint and martyr. According to traditional belief, he was killed during the Dioclet ...

'' , produced for the church of Santa Maria ad Ogni Bene dei Sette Dolori and now also in the Museo di Capodimonte.

History

The work's provenance is identical to that of the same artist's '' Judith and Holofernes''. The first written reference to it is in the 1659 will of the

Calabria , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

n lawyer Domenico di Somma, which mistakes its subject for Judith. It was then inherited by di Somma's friend, collaborator and fellow Calabrian, Antonino Laratta. Di Somma and Laratta were both Preti's lawyers during the painter's argument with the fathers of the church of

Sant'Andrea della Valle Sant'Andrea della Valle is a minor basilica in the rione of Sant'Eustachio of the city of Rome, Italy. The basilica is the general seat for the religious order of the Theatines. It is located at Piazza Vidoni, at the intersection of Corso Vittori ...

in Rome. On Laratta's death in 1685 both paintings were left to the church of San Domenico Soriano in Naples, as di Somma had stipulated before his death - that church was the centre of the Calabrian community in Naples. The two works were placed on the side walls of the chapel where di Somma was buried, immediately to the right of the high altar. When the religious order was suppressed in 1806, these two paintings and a ''

Saint Nicholas Saint Nicholas of Myra, ; la, Sanctus Nicolaus (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greeks, Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor (; modern-da ...

'' (Preti's first work in Naples, initially produced for the Gallo-Coscia chapel but by 1806 in San Domenico Soriano) were moved into the Bourbon collection in Palazzo dei Regi Studi Nicola Spinosa, Mattia Preti. ''Tra Roma, Napoli e Malta'', Napoli, Electa, 1999, ISBN 978-8851001292, p. 130. - the ''Saint Nicholas'' was exhibited there immediately, but the ''Judith'' and ''Saint John'' were initially placed in the collection's stores, with restoration to the support of ''Saint John'' in 1839, and both works were finally exhibited in 1870.

References

Bibliography

* Nicola Spinosa, ''Mattia Preti. Tra Roma, Napoli e Malta'', Napoli, Electa, 1999, ISBN 978-8851001292. * N. Spinosa, ''Pittura del Seicento a Napoli - da Mattia Preti a Luca Giordano, natura in posa'', Napoli, Arte'm, 2010. {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint John the Baptist Paintings depicting John the Baptist Paintings by Mattia Preti 1650s paintings Paintings in the collection of the Museo di Capodimonte