Artista attivo a Roma, ultimo quarto XVII secolo

Oil on canvas

100x75 cm. Framed

This intense and powerful depiction of Saint Onofrio, an anchorite who lived in Egypt in the 4th Century, shows a particularly rich and articulate figurative culture. Roman and Neapolitan elements are happily combined thanks to a very personal interpretation of models by Guercino, Mattia Preti, Mola and Luca Giordano, which push our painting towards Giacinto Brandi on the one hand, and towards Paolo De Matteis on the other. Although it is deemed appropriate here to leave the attribution question open, the painting's gloomy naturalism, governed by a refined mastery of drawing, seems to push the needle of the scales more towards the Roman area in the last decades of the 17th Century.