''The Banquet of Absalom'' ( it, Convito di Assalonne) is an 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 ...

, created in 1660–1665, 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 ...

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 ...

.Nicola Spinosa, ''Mattia Preti. Tra Roma, Napoli e Malta'', Napoli, Electa, 1999, ISBN 978-8851001292, p. 174. It illustrates a passage from chapters 13 and 14 of

2 Samuel The Book of Samuel (, ''Sefer Shmuel'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the narrative history of Ancient Israel called the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Book ...

in the Old Testament, in which

King David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

's son

Absalom Absalom ( he, ''ʾAḇšālōm'', "father of peace") was the third son of David, King of Israel with Maacah, daughter of Talmai, King of Geshur. 2 Samuel 14:25 describes him as the handsomest man in the kingdom. Absalom eventually rebelled ag ...

avenges the rape of Absalom's sister Tamar two years earlier by inviting her rapist Amnon to a feast, getting him drunk and then killing him.

History

Banquets were a common motif in Preti's mature phase, after he had admired

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...

' ''

The Feast of Herod The Feast of Herod refers to the episode in the Gospels following the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, when Salome presents his head to her parents. The account in the Book of Mark describes Herod holding a banquet on his birthday for his high of ...

'' in the Roomer and then Vandeneynden collections during his time in Naples. It also shows heavy Venetian influence, with Rolf Schott in 1910 calling it "a murder in the Neapolitan style set in a banquet in

Veronese Veronese is the Italian word denoting someone or something from Verona, Italy and may refer to: * Veronese Riddle, a popular riddle in the Middle Ages * ''Veronese'' (moth), a moth genus in the family Crambidae * Monte Veronese, an Italian chees ...

's style". ''Absalom'' is dated by similarities to ''The Conversion of Saint Paul'' in the cappella di Francia in

St John's Co-Cathedral St John's Co-Cathedral ( mt, Kon-Katidral ta' San Ġwann) is a Roman Catholic co-cathedral in Valletta, Malta, dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. It was built by the Order of St. John between 1573 and 1578, having been commissioned by Grand Ma ...

Valletta Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an Local councils of Malta, administrative unit and capital city, capital of Malta. Located on the Malta (island), main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, i ...

on Malta, probably placing the former work in his early years on Malta. The first written reference to the work is by Bernardo De Dominici, who saw it in the

Sanseverino * Sanseverino (family): The Sanseverino are one of the historical families most famous in the Kingdom of Naples and all of Italy, having 300 strongholds, 40 counties, nine marquisates, twelve duchies and ten principalities primarily distributed in ...

family collection in Naples alongside other Preti works such as '' Belshazzar's Feast'' (now also in Capodimonte) and ''David Playing the Harp Before Saul'' (now in a private collection in New York,Art Salon - Mattia Preti, ''David Playing the Harp Before Saul''
/ref>) with the latter more recently identified as the pendant to ''Absalom''. After 1745 ''Absalom'' was recorded in the Colonna di Stigliano family collection, seemingly having reached it from the Vandeneynden collection when Ferdinand van den Eynde's daughter

Giovanna Giovanna is an Italian feminine first name. It is the feminine counterpart of the masculine Giovanni, which in turn is the Italian form of John; it is thus the Italian equivalent of Jane, Joanna, Jeanne, etc. In Brazil, the feminine name Giovann ...

married Giuliano Colonna of Stigliano family in 1688 - she also inherited from her father Palazzo Zevallos, renamed Palazzo Colonna di Stigliano after her marriage. In 1906 the Italian state bought ''Absalom'' and ''Belshazzar's Feast'' from princess Cecilia Colonna di Stigliano (granddaughter of Andrea Colonna di Stigliano, 1st Prince of Stigliano, himself grandson of Giovanna's son Ferdinando Colonna of Stigliano, 2nd Prince of Sonnino) and placed them both in their present home.

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:Banquet of Absalom Paintings in the Museo di Capodimonte Paintings of Hebrew Bible people 1660s paintings Paintings by Mattia Preti