VERMIGLIO, Giuseppe - b. ~1585 Alessandria, d. ~1635 ? - WGA

VERMIGLIO, Giuseppe

(b. ~1585 Alessandria, d. ~1635 ?)

Italian Caravaggist painter, active in northern Italy and Rome. He spent the first two decades of the seventeenth century in Rome where he trained and worked as an artist. In 1605 he was arrested and imprisoned after being discovered at the Monte di Brianza hostelry bearing an unlicensed sword; and in 1611 proceedings were brought against him for physically attacking the painter Silvio Oliviero. In 1618, still in Rome, he is recorded as a picture dealer. Around 1620 he returned to northern Italy where he pursued his career as a painter in Piedmont (Novara and Alessandria) and in Lombardy (in Mantua and Milan).

Beside Caravaggio, he was also influenced by the Bolognese painters Annibale Carracci and Guido Reni.

David Holding Goliath's Head
David Holding Goliath's Head by

David Holding Goliath's Head

This composition recalls the celebrated precedent by Caravaggio. It uses Caravaggio’s canvas in the Borghese Gallery as its starting-point: the young Biblical hero is shown half-length, holding the enormous sword (almost a sabre) with which he had severed the head of the giant Goliath, which he holds up in his left hand, grasping it by the hair. Vermiglio has aimed for a restrained level of drama, putting the accent on decorum. Attention is given to the descriptive details of the sling and the decorated pommel and handguard of the sword that crosses the foreground.

St Margaret
St Margaret by
St Paul
St Paul by
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