A Young Man
by CARACCIOLO, Giovanni Battista, Oil on canvas, 63 x 50 cm
The painting, showing the half-length figure of a young man, reflects the influence of Caravaggio’s St John the Baptist, painted in Naples. However, the youth’s air of coarseness and his enticing smile seem far removed from a religious representation, and these qualities would seem instead to suggest a figure of Bacchus. The painting attests to Caracciolo’s prominent role among the Caravaggesque painters at the heart of the Neapolitan School.