Massimo Stanzione (frattamaggiore Or Orta Di Atella 1585 - Naples 1656) Visitation Entourage

Massimo Stanzione (Frattamaggiore or Orta di Atella 1585 - Naples 1656) entourage ofVisitation of the Virgin Mary to her cousin Saint ElizabethOil on canvas147 x 100 cmWritten expertise by William Suida under the name of Massimo Stanzione.The admiration for the art of Massimo Stanzione was such that he was nicknamed the Neapolitan Guido Reni. His works combine the classicism of Emilian painting by Reni and Domenichino with the tenebrism inherited from Caravaggio. Initially a portraitist, he later acquired the notoriety of a Baroque painter dedicated to sacred times. His most important works are found in the great altarpieces as well as in the cycles of frescoes of the Neapolitan churches. An artistic rival of Jusepe de Ribera, he dominated the Neapolitan scene of the first half of the 17th century like Spagnoletto. Stanzione strongly influenced the Neapolitan pictorial milieu that succeeded him, having been an important leader of the school. He enjoyed a wide audience, converting painters such as Filippo Vitale and Francesco Guarino to his themes, who until then had expressed themselves in the wake of the naturalist tradition. Among his many students and disciples we can cite: Andrea Vaccaro, Bernardo Cavallino, Muzio Rossi (Nunzio), Pacecco De Rosa, Onofrio Palumbo, Domenico Gargiulo, Giovanni Ricca, Giuseppe Marullo, Nicola Marigliano, Antonio De Bellis, Agostino and Giuseppe Beltrano, Carlo Rosa, Domenico Finoglia, Andrea and Niccolò Malinconico, Nicolò De Simone. So many artistic personalities, often prominent, who have unequivocally stigmatized the important contribution of Massimo Stanzione to the Neapolitan artistic panorama of the 17th century.