Saint James in the Battle of Clavijo, oil on canvas, 101.5 x 128 cm, framed

Provenance:
European private collection

We are grateful to Professor Riccardo Lattuada for suggesting the attribution for the present painting after examining the original (written communication, 20 July 2012).

The present composition is an important addition to the oeuvre of Andrea de Lione. Its existence was only previously known from a copy in the Museo Provinciale di Salerno. According to Lattuada, the free and nervous brushwork displayed in the present work is typical of de Lione’s Baroque painterly style, which is very different from the increasingly classicist evolution of his master Aniello Falcone, to whom this work had been traditionally given.

A pupil of the Mannerist master Belisario Corenzio, Andrea de Lione appears to have joined Aniello Falcone’s workshop in around 1630. He and Falcone executed paintings of similar subject matter, mainly battles, such as the present composition, and occasionally religious compositions (see G. Porzio, in: Andrea de Lione. La pittura come racconto, Napoli, Galleria Napoli Nobilissima, 2008, pp. 45–51, and G. Sestieri, I pittori di battaglie. Maestri italiani e stranieri del XVII e XVIII secolo, Rome, De Luca, 1999, pp. 82–86, 308–23).

The subject of the present composition is indicated by the saint’s halo and by the shape of his sword, with two lilies at the edges of the red hilt. Saint James, called “El Matamoros” because of his miraculous role in the Battle of Clavijo, was the object of a national cult in Spain. The Spanish community was numerous in 17th Century Naples, which would explain the number of works depicting the Battle of Clavijo in Neapolitan painting at that time, especially in Aniello Falcone’s milieu; it is therefore likely that the present picture was executed for a Spanish client in Naples. Its format would indicate its destination for a private collection.

A source of inspiration for the present Battle of Clavijo can be seen in a large composition by Aniello Falcone (Christie’s, London, 5 July 1992, lot 63). The present picture, however, appears more concentrated and the soldiers of both armies wear more modern armour than in another version of the Battle of Clavijo (Finarte Milan 1995, lot 135) attributed to Falcone and assistants by Giancarlo Sestieri (see G. Sestieri, op. cit., p. 338; p. 348, n. 20). This painting may have influenced de Lione to use of the yellow mantle of Saint James seen in the present picture.

The strong rendering of the red clothes of the lying archer’s figure in the foreground, but also the injured Muslim soldiers on the left and the red tones of the tanned flesh are reminiscent of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, called Il Grechetto, whose presence in Naples is indirectly documented between 1635 and 1636 and whose influence appears to have been even stronger on de Lione than on Falcone. Lattuada suggests that this is one of the strong arguments in favour of an attribution to Andrea de Lione for the present picture. Indeed it shows almost exactly the same palette of colours as in two versions of the Battle between Hebrews and Amalekites by de Lione: one in Naples, Museo e Gallerie Nazionali di Capodimonte; the another, with a monogram, in a private collection in Naples (see G. Sestieri, op. cit., p. 322, nos. 31–32).

Lattuada argues that the present picture is entirely by Andrea de Lione, but that the relationship between the painter and his master Falcone was so strong that evidently they shared specific models, for example the head of the lying archer in the present picture, which derives from the same source as another head in Falcone’s picture previously with Finarte.

We are grateful to Professor Lattuada for his help in cataloguing of this lot.