Oil painting on canvas. Francesco Fracanzano. St.

Oil painting on canvas. Francesco Fracanzano (Monopoli, 9 July 1612 - Naples, 1656). St. Francis of Paola in prayer. 99X76, piece without frame. "The canvas is allegedly by the painter who worked in Naples in the seventeenth century, Francesco Fracanzano (Monopoli, 9 July 1612 - Naples, 1656) and represents St. Francis of Paola in prayer, with the iconographic attributes typical of the Saint constituted by the habit, the book (in which we read in part "Charitas" with a skull on top, placed at the bottom and laterally with respect to the figure. The painting has the typical characteristics ascribable to Fracanzano such as the full and lumpy material density, the color of the skin and hands that turns towards a reddish, which highlights a Caravaggio-style naturalism that partly takes on the teachings of the Ribera school but to which adds the tonal and drawing values of Guercino, Carracci and Reni himself. The work is attributable to the period of the pictorial experience of Fracanzano more contiguous to the example of Ribera. Very similar work is exhibited at the Museum of Dubrovinik (Croatia), with some differences (shown in parallel in this sheet with the use of the image for comparison) concerning the position of the book, placed vertically and with the pages spread out, the skull in the background, the composition that seems to have become more lumpy, accentuating the riberesque structure, the kneeling figure of the saint is seen in its entirety. For the work compared, in reference to the same author, due to a purely philological need, we note a detailed study that highlighted that "in the second half of the seventeenth century, the Saint Francis of Paola of Dubrovnik, where the resumption of the charismatic characters in the face is calmed in the drafting of the soft and ample folds of the habit, which cover the entire composition and allow for such a combination a valid comparison both with works by Francesco Fracanzano, such as with San Benedetto di San Gregorio Armeno and the Saint Paul hermit of the church of Sant'Onofrio dei Vecchi in Naples, both with the mature production of Angelo Solimena and with the youthful production of his son Francesco, especially with regard to the resumption of the Lanfranco ways "(On the trail of Neapolitan painting in Croatia between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by Mario Alberto Pavone - University of Palermo). But it should be emphasized that many works referring to figures of saints, passed from the antique market and contained in private and museum collections, made by Francesco Fracanzano, have the same expressive formulation and analogous pictorial and compositional qualities, confirming the validity of the attribution to the same painter. The picture preserves the original frame of the seventeenth century; a very old re-tiling of the mid-nineteenth century has been maintained which, being in good condition, has not been replaced (nor raised for other purposes)." Dott. Francesco Amato