STANZIONE, Massimo

This nightly scene unites the subject of the Adoration of the Shepherds from the Gospel according to St Luke with the depiction of the enlightened Christ Child from the Visions of Saint Bridget of Sweden.

This painting is part of a series of canvases with scenes from the life of St John the Baptist which were executed for the Buen Retiro palace. Some paintings of the series were painted by Artemisia Gentileschi.

In the former sacristy chapel, which is now only a passageway, Massimo Stanzione decorated the ceiling in 1644. Although Stanzione specialised in altarpieces, he was also highly successful in Naples as a wall and ceiling painter. In accordance with the technical realities of the medium, in these works the richly contrasting chiaroscuro of his oil paintings gives way to buoyant, saturated colours clearly influenced by the Bolognese artists. The vault of the former sacristy chapel is the best example of his style as a painter in fresco, one schooled in the academic painting of Rome but enlivened by a Neapolitan temperament.

The decorative system on the ceiling frames an arrangement of pictures. There are four scenes from the Passion in the vault’s spandrel: Nailing to the Cross; Erecting of the Cross; Longinus Piercing Christ in the Side with His Spear; Descent from the Cross. In the centre of the vault the scene of the Ascension of Christ is depicted. Four Old Testament scenes are in the pear-shaped cartouches around the central scene, between them the four evangelists are represented in a scale far larger than that of the figures in the paintings.

Stanzione’s rich colour and idealized naturalism, for which he was called ‘il Guido Reni napoletano’, definitively influenced numerous local artists.

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In the course of the restoration that followed the National Gallery’s acquisition of this painting, the painter’s signature came to light. As Stanzione styles himself as “Cavaliere” in the signature, we may date the work to after 1621, the year in which the painter was knighted. Scholars agree in assigning the painting to the earlier phase of Stanzione’s career, to somewhere between 1621 and 1626. The painting shows not only the influence of Battistello Caracciolo, but also that of Vouet and Honthorst, foreign masters to whom Stanzione was exposed during his first stay in Rome (1617-20).

In contrast to the prototypes of Ribera and Battistello, Stanzione shows a desire to interpret the theme in a measured, classical sense. He does not exaggerate the tones of tragedy but instead leads the viewer into the circle of most intimate and quiet sentiments; no less intense than a more extroverted and dramatic treatment might have been. The most human and heart-rending gesture of the mother, who bends to kiss the hand of her dead son, sums up the quiet emotionalism of the picture. A poignant detail invented by the artist and not present in any of the models mentioned, this passage is illuminated by a sharp ray of light, and stands out against the dark background to serve as the emotional fulcrum of the entire composition.

Stanzione’s use of light is highly sophisticated: it is closer to Ribera than to Battistello, and is enriched with motifs derived from Saraceni. An illustrative passage is the spot of light that grazes the nose of the Virgin, a figure otherwise completely enfolded in shadow. Likewise, the splendid body of Christ is illuminated with consummate pictorial wisdom.

This painting is part of a series of canvases with scenes from the life of St John the Baptist which were executed for the Buen Retiro palace. Some paintings of the series were painted by Artemisia Gentileschi.

Stanzione was one of the leading Neapolitan painters of the Caravaggio school. His style is a more graceful and elegant form of Caravaggism.

This painting belongs to a group of smaller devotional works which Stanzione produced in the mid-1640s. It may well have been part of the paintings which he donated to the church of Sant’Agostino degli Scalzi in Naples in order to assure himself a burial place there.

This painting was most probably commissioned by the connoisseur, patron and collector, F�rst Karl Eusebius von und zu Liechtenstein (1611-1684), and it formed part of the illustrious Liechtenstein collection. Strongly Raphaelesque in inspiration, the composition combines a sweetness of sentiment with a solidity of form.