103 - GIUSEPPE SIMONELLI

GIUSEPPE SIMONELLI (Naples 1650 - 1710) ESCAPE IN EGYPT Oil on canvas, 100 x 127 cm. PROVENANCE Venetian family Treated by biographer Bernardo De Dominici as among Luca Giordano's best pupils and his imitator: [...] he imitated the master's coloring very well, and so much so, that outsiders very often deceive themselves in the copies [...] B. De' Dominici Vite De Pittori, Scultori ed Architetti Napoletani, edition, Bologna 1971, Vol. III, p. 445 Again the biographer mentions some of his important works: 'The picture in the church of Monte Santo is beautiful, for it was painted under the eye of the master, and the S. Cecilia was retouched by the same. Other works of his [....] are in the church dè Girolami, in S. Liguoro, in San Niccolò Tolentino [...] Ibid. Current critics, however, have reevaluated the artistic abilities of Simonelli, who from Dè Dominici onwards was considered simply a good imitator of Giordano The painting under consideration with its rather open and well harmonious construction shows stylistic similarities with some recognized works by Giuseppe Simonelli, located in Aversa and Lecce, the elements of comparison are to be found both in the angels and in the figures of the ferrymen CONDITION REPORT Recent rintelo