Oronzo Malinconico

Oronzo Malinconico (Naples 1661-1709) - Penitent Magdalene, 17th century H cm 180x121, in frame cm 195x145 Oil on canvas Expert opinion by Professor Claudio Strinati: "The painting derives from a well-known prototype of the Guercino environment muchimitated throughout the seventeenth century and beyond in the various schools of 'Italy. Here the figure is whole and the work is enriched by a valuable Still Life at the feet of theSaint.The painting is conducted with a very correct design and appears welllumed in the 'tenebrista' fashion that from the Venetian environment radiates also in southern Italy during the second half of the seventeenth century.Precisely for this reason I refer the painting to the interesting and rare Neapolitan painter Oronzo Malinconico, a member of the well-known family of artistsalmost all gravitating in the circle of Luca Giordano. Such a stylistic reference would seem to be justified by interesting and vividanalogies found for our painting in the few certain works of this artist, who was well known in his time, and then entered a kind of conodobscurity from which he is beginning to re-emerge in recent times thanks to the studies ofauthoritative specialists of the period. The Guercinesque component, evident in our painting, is also very clear in some of Oronzo's crucial works, as can be seen in the cycle of canvases he executed for the d'Avalos Chapel in Montesarchio, presumably between the eighth and ninth decades of the seventeenth century.This observation leads, therefore, to date the painting here under consideration at the same time. We see there the same robust manner and the same mastery of drafting thatpurely induce a visual effect of sad and introverted meditation comecompete to the character depicted. Good state of preservation. In faith, Claudio Strinati"