Marzio Masturzio (active In Naples And Rome Around The Middle Of17th Century), Battle Scene

Marzio Masturzio (active in Naples and Rome around the middle of the 17th century)

Battle scene

Oil on canvas, cm 35x72

With frame, cm 47x85

Marzio Masturzio was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active in Naples and Rome in the second half of the seventeenth century. He was a student and friend of Salvator Rosa and, like him, specialized in battle scenes. According to the biographer Bernardo De Dominici, Masturzio moved to Rome with Rosa and together they updated their training, initially influenced by the work of Aniello Falcone, looking at the examples provided by the works of international fighters active in Rome. His works show a remarkable energy and attention to detail in the representation of the clashes between knights, with lively strokes and a use of color that, while inspired by Rosa, shows its completely autonomous artistic personality. The artist’s catalogue finds in the two Battles preserved at the Corsini Gallery in Rome the figurative documents to lucidly define his personality. Marzio Masturzo is an emblematic case of the 'Italian battle', for the scant biographical news about him in contrast with a rich catalog that expresses a rare quality consistency and a great technical-executive level. Our painting, presenting a battle scene near a city center, it could presumably belong to the mature phase of Masturzio’s activity, for the classical quotations of scenography and the excited description of baroque taste. In the second phase of his career, in fact, the painter emulates, while maintaining his independence under the technical-iconographic influence, the creations of Jacques Courtois called the Borgognone. From the Borgognone comes the description of the fight in the background, Where the bitter struggle thickened smoke and dust with intense realistic intonation and on which stand out the colors of uniforms and harnesses.