Lot 211: *MASSIMO STANZIONE (1585-1656)

oil on canvas, unframed This unpublished work of the Allegory of Painting may be dated, by comparison with other works by the artist, to Stanzione's mature period; that is, to the 1630s. The female figure belongs to a type used in many of Stanzione's paintings of the Virgin and female saints executed in the fourth decade of the 17th Century: compare, to name but one example, Mary Magdalene adoring the Cross in the Marsicola collection, Rome (S. Schütze & T. Willette, Massimo Stanzione. L'opera completa, 1992, p. 211, cat. no. A49, illus. fig. 181). The basic compositional motif of a single putto appearing to a female figure reappears in the artist's two paintings, of almost identical composition, Saint Agatha in prison (Gallerie Nazionali di Capodimonte, Naples) and Saint Giuliana (church of the Santissima Trinità, Palermo) (Schütze & Willette, op. cit., pp. 213-4, cat. nos. A57 & A57a, illus. figs. 195 & 196). The flying putto with outstretched right arm also recalls the putto in Stanzione's altarpiece for the Cappella di Sant'Ugo in the Museo Nazionale di San Martino (op. cit., cat. no. A76, illus. fig. 272). The putto is shown holding up a laurel wreath with which he is about to crown the figure who represents Painting - her brushes and palette in hand. The style of the painting is reminiscent of the works of Bernardo Cavallino, to whom the painting was originally attributed, and this can largely be explained by Cavallino's presence in Stanzione's workshop during the latter half of the 1630s. For this reason, and by comparison with other paintings by Stanzione, this work may be dated to the later 1630s.

Israel Perlstein, New York, circa 1930s, thence by descent to the present owner