Lot 301: BERNARDO CAVALLINO

SAINT LUKE

3 1/4 by 4 1/2 in.; 8 by 11.4 cm.

oil on copper

Bernardo Cavallino was probably the most individual and refined painter in Naples in the first half of the 17 (th) century. Documentary evidence for his life and work is almost non-existent, and he remains enigmatic and elusive as a personality. His work, seemingly largely painted for private patrons rather then public commissions, combines complex and dramatic compositions with a highly refined and naturalistic style and virtuoso brushwork. The biographer Bernardo de Dominici, writing his Vite in 1742-43, considered him one of the five most important Neapolitan painters of the preceding century.