Antonio de Bellis Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1616 -

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    • ANTONIO DE BELLIS (ITALIAN, 1610-1700) ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST IN THE WILDERNESS OI
      Dec. 08, 2017

      ANTONIO DE BELLIS (ITALIAN, 1610-1700) ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST IN THE WILDERNESS OI

      Est: $20,000 - $30,000

      Antonio de Bellis (Italian, 1610-1700) St. John the Baptist in the wilderness Oil on canvas 47-3/4 x 55-1/4 inches (121.3 x 140.3 cm) PROVENANCE: Private Italian collection, circa 1982; William E. Johnson Fine Art and Antiques, Dallas, TX, 1997; Private collection, Dallas, TX, acquired from the above, 1997. A major figure in Neapolitan painting of the seventeenth century, Antonio de Bellis was highly regarded for his mastery of the male nude and for his exceptional draftsmanship. His works frequently give full rein to these twin strengths. Like many Baroque artists of his time, de Bellis was influenced by the powerful monumentality and dramatic lighting effects pioneered by Caravaggio, although his point of contact came through the more immediate work of Jusepe de Ribera in Naples. De Bellis frequently created compositions with large-scale figures commanding a great deal of the picture surface, and his subjects were often those experiencing extreme emotional states or undergoing physical torture. De Bellis' Flaying of Marsyas (Ringling Museum, Sarasota, Florida), St. Sebastian (Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans), and Lamentation over the dead Christ (Church of St. Rocco, Solofra), for example, all present the male nude (or near-nude) in the immediate foreground, in complex poses that showcase the artist's gifts for pathos and anatomical precision. Another side of de Bellis' art, exemplified by St. John the Baptist in the wilderness, is quieter and intensely poetic. De Bellis was also a highly skilled landscape painter, whose acute observation of natural details, such as the bark and lichen patterns on the ancient gnarled oak in the present work, created equivalents to emotional states he conveyed in his figures. As a storyteller in paint, de Bellis would often situate small figures within a shadowy landscape of woodlands and grottoes. He was fond of asymmetrical arrangements--placing a simple figure cluster to one side, spotlighting it against an inky darkness, and then puncturing the opposite side of the composition with a bright sky, and a luminous vista receding into the distance (cf. De Bellis' Death of Abel and The Good Samaritan, both in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples). HID04901242017

      Heritage Auctions
    • FRANCESCO GUARINO
      Jan. 28, 2011

      FRANCESCO GUARINO

      Est: $30,000 - $50,000

      FRANCESCO GUARINO SANT' AGATA IRPINA, NEAR SOLOFRA 1611 - 1654 GRAVINA DI PUGLIA SAINT ANTHONY ABBOT AND THE CENTAUR dated 1642 (lower left) 17 1/2 by 26 in.; 44.5 by 66 cm.

      Sotheby's
    • ANTONIO DE BELLIS BORN CIRCA 1616; ACTIVE IN NAPLES CIRCA 1636 TO CIRCA 1657/8
      Jan. 26, 2006

      ANTONIO DE BELLIS BORN CIRCA 1616; ACTIVE IN NAPLES CIRCA 1636 TO CIRCA 1657/8

      Est: $100,000 - $150,000

      SAINT ANTHONY ABBOT AND THE CENTAUR measurements note 17 1/2 by 26 in.; 44.5 by 66 cm. dated 1642 oil on canvas NOTE This unpublished canvas is dated 1642 and represents an important addition to the oeuvre of Antonio de Bellis. It is a work of his youthful maturity, dating a few years after the completion of his most important early commission, a series of canvases depicting the life of San Carlo Borromeo in the church of San Carlo alle Mortelle, Naples (documented 1636-40, see N. Spinosa, La pittura napoletana del '600, Milano, 1984, reproudced 200-203). Although dating only a relatively short time later, the level of sophistication and narrative originality exhibited in this Saint Anthony Abbot and the Centaur demonstrate de Bellis' rapid artistic development. The continued influence of Ribera is clear in the work's dynamic naturalism and coloration (in fact, the painting had traditionally been attributed to Ribera). By the mid 1640's, de Bellis's style had moved toward Cavallino's more conciously elegant manner. The unusual subject of this painting is described by Saint Jerome in his life of Saint Paul the Hermit. Saint Anthony, believing himself to be the first desert hermit, had a vision telling him that Saint Paul had lived in the wildnerness before him, and that he should seek him out. Setting out to find him, Anthony ran into an astounding sight: All at once he beholds a creature of mingled shape, half horse half man, called by the poets Hippocentaur. At the sight of this he arms himself by making on his forehead the sign of salvation, and then exclaims, "Holloa! Where in these parts is a servant of God living?" The monster after gnashing out some kind of outlandish utterance, in words broken rather than spoken through his bristling lips, at length finds a friendly mode of communication, and extending his right hand points out the way desired. Then with swift flight he crosses the spreading plain and vanishes from the sight of his wondering companion ["Life of Paulus the First Hermit," in Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers, Series II, Vol. VI, Edinburgh 1886, cap. 7]. We are grateful to Nicola Spinosa who on first hand inspection confirms the present work to be by De Bellis.

      Sotheby's
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