(Naples 1602–1643)
Saint Cecilia,
oil on canvas, 151 x 127 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection, for almost 100 years

Exhibited:
Rome, Palazzo Barberini, Colori della musica: dipinti, strumenti e concerti tra Cinquecento e Seicento, 15 December 2000 – 28 February 2001 (as Neapolitan Master 17th Century)

Literature:
P. Leone de Castris, Disegni e dipinti meridionali del primo Seicento, da Novelli a Stanzione, in: Close reading: Kunsthistorische Interpretationen vom Mittelalter bis in die Moderne. Festschrift für Sebastian Schütze, ed. by S. Albl, B. Hub, A. Frasca-Rath, Berlin 2021, p. 368, illustrated p. 367 fig. 5 (as Massimo Stanzione);
G. Porzio, Diana di Rosa. “Bellissima, onestissima, virtuosa dipintrice” nella Napoli del Seicento, Naples 2023, no. 10, fig. 13, pl. 14 (as Diana de Rosa)

We are grateful to Riccardo Lattuada for endorsing the attribution of the present painting after examination of the original and for his help in cataloguing this lot.

This painting depicts Saint Cecilia dressed in a magnificent deep plumb-coloured dress which boldly contrasts with her red lined, gold-coloured mantle, ornamented with an embroidered edging ribbon. The saint is shown intent on playing her violin, and she is accompanied by two putti who appear to be singing from a score. In the upper right an angel offers the saint a palm frond, the locks of his hair blending into the golden light of the background.

This painting can be compared to a series of works which, on stylistic grounds, have been grouped around the name of Diana de Rosa. She is documented as painting two Stories of the Virgin in Santa Maria della Pietà, Naples. Another three canvases representing Stories of the Virgin in Naples have been stylistically connected with these works: one in San Giovanni Maggiore and another two in the Museo Diocesano di Napoli (see: F. Petrelli, ‘Una luce su Annella de Rosa’, in Ricerche sul 600 napoletano. Saggi e documenti 2008’, Naples 2009, pp. 87-92; G. Porzio, in: ed. by P.L. Leone de Castris, Il Museo Diocesano di Napoli. Percorsi di Fede e Arte, Naples 2008, p. 132, no. 40;G. Porzio, ‘Ordine teatino e contesto artistico napoletano nel Seicento: Francesco Maria Caselli, Gaspare Del Popolo e una nota su Diana De Rosa’, in D.A. D’Alessandro, Sant’Andrea Avellino e i Teatini nella Napoli del Viceregno spagnolo. Arte Religione e Società Napoli, 2012, pp. 599-601, 610-621, figs. 3-15; G. Porzio, in Artemisia Gentileschi a Napoli, exhibition catalogue, ed. by A.E. Denunzio/G. Porzio, Milan 2022, pp. 39-40, 46-47).

In all these works, which until recently were often attributed to Giovan Francesco De Rosa, called Pacecco De Rosa (1606–1656), there emerges an original and highly personalised interpretation of the works of Massimo Stanzione (1585–1656) and of Agostino Beltrano (1607–1656). In particular, in the comparison with the above cited works, it is apparent that the model used for the present Saint Cecilia is similar to the female figure in the Noli me tangere formerly on the Roman art market (sale, Bertolami, Rome, 14 November 2018, lot 185).
A similar figure also appears in the Saint Cecilia sold at Drouot (sale, Drouot, Paris, 2 December 2022, lot 4) and can also be compared to the model used in the Saint Agatha visited in prison by Saint Peter formerly with Arcuti Fine Art, Torino.

Diana de Rosa, the sister of Pacecco de Rosa, was one of the few women painters in Naples and she achieved considerable professional acclaim. The records state that she died at the hands of her husband, Agostino Beltrano, owing to his jealousy of the privileged, yet platonic, relations Diana (also called Annella di Massimo) is supposed to have maintained with Massimo Stanzione, the leading classical painter of the Neapolitan school after 1630. In fact, Diana died in affluent circumstances at the age of about 41 in 1643, and she was well integrated in the Neapolitan culture of painters of the era, holding a prominent role in the circle of Stanzione.