Mattia preti, san nicola di bari, 1653, Q258

''Saint Nicholas'' is a c. 1653 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 Ca ...

, the first work he produced after moving to

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

and showing the three gold balls which are a traditional attribute of the saint. It is now in the Museo nazionale di Capodimonte in the same city. Nicola Spinosa, ''Mattia Preti. Tra Roma, Napoli e Malta'', Napoli, Electa, 1999, ISBN 978-8851001292., p. 128. He also produced a larger version of the work in 1657 which is now in the Pinacoteca civica in

Fano Fano is a town and ''comune'' of the province of Pesaro and Urbino in the Marche region of Italy. It is a beach resort southeast of Pesaro, located where the '' Via Flaminia'' reaches the Adriatic Sea. It is the third city in the region by po ...

, with an early copy after the Capodimonte version now in the church of

Santa Teresa degli Scalzi Santa Teresa degli Scalzi (previously known as the church of Santa Teresa al Museo, or of Santa Teresa agli studi or della Madre di Dio) is a church in Naples, Italy, located in via Santa Teresa degli Scalzi, a wide street opened during 1806–181 ...

in Naples.

History

The first archival reference to the work is in a document dated 20 December 1653 in which Isabella Gallo pays the artist 40 ducats to settle a fee (agreed at a total of 50 ducats) for a painting of

Nicholas of Bari 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 Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor (; modern-day De ...

. She wanted the painting for the church of San Domenico Soriano, the centre of the Calabrian community in Naples and a church for which Preti also painted dome frescoes, destroyed during the 19th century. It was placed in the Gallo-Coscia chapel, which was dedicated to Saint Nicholas and had been bought for 150 ducats by Isabella on the death of her husband Domenico Coscia, a native of

Catanzaro Catanzaro (, or ; scn, label= Catanzarese, Catanzaru ; , or , ''Katastaríoi Lokrói''; ; la, Catacium), also known as the "City of the two Seas", is an Italian city of 86,183 inhabitants (2020), the capital of the Calabria region and of its p ...

. When the religious order was suppressed in 1806, the work and Preti's ''

Saint John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...

'' and '' Judith and Holofernes'' from the same church were added to the Real Museo Borbonico in the Palazzo dei Regi Studi (on what is now the site of the

National Archaeological Museum of Naples The National Archaeological Museum of Naples ( it, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, italic=no, sometimes abbreviated to MANN) is an important Italian archaeological museum, particularly for ancient Roman remains. Its collection includes wor ...

). In 1843 the ''Saint Nicholas'' was engraved and published in all the guidebooks to the city, becoming one of the best-known works in the Bourbon collections. It was highly appreciated by 19th and 20th century art historians and painters, who praised its

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 ...

Roberto Longhi Roberto Longhi (28 December 1890 – 3 June 1970) was an Italian academic, art historian, and curator. The main subjects of his studies were the painters Caravaggio and Piero della Francesca. Early life and career Longhi was born in December 18 ...

wrote of it "Preti's creation is the harmonic outcropping of mass along main planes of light".

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 Nicholas Paintings in the collection of the Museo di Capodimonte 1653 paintings Paintings by Mattia Preti Paintings of Saint Nicholas