Neapolitan master, second half of the 17th century. The Evangelist Mark

In a small space, the painter sketched the Evangelist Markus with sweeping strokes. He sits on a chair with an ornate backrest facing to the right at a table, holding a quill in his right hand to write down the Gospel. With his head turned to the side so that the viewer can look into his face, Mark listens to divine inspiration as he writes the Gospel, visualized as light coming in from the top left. A halo in the shape of a golden circlet with light reflections floats above him. At the bottom left, his symbolic animal, the lion, crouches in the shadows. Oil on canvas, 18.5 × 15cm