(Rocchette in Sabina 1637 – post 1710 Rome)
Saint Paul,
oil on canvas, 98 x 73 cm, framed

Provenance:
Koelliker collection, Milan;
Private European collection;
where acquired by the present owner

Exhibited:
Ariccia, Palazzo Chigi, Mola e il suo tempo. Pittura di figura a Roma dalla collezione Koelliker, 22 January – 23 April 2005, no. 34 (as Girolamo Troppa)

Literature:
M. Epifani, in: Mola e il suo tempo. Pittura di figura a Roma dalla collezione Koelliker, ed. by F. Petrucci, exhibition catalogue, Milan 2005, pp. 172-173, no. 34, ill. (as Girolamo Troppa);F. Petrucci, Considerazioni su Girolamo Troppa: un ‘tenebrista’ del tardo Seicento romano, in: Prospettiva, 146, 2012, p. 100, no. 119 (as Girolamo Troppa)

This Saint Paul is comparable in pose, size and style to the series of half-bust figures of saints and poets painted by Girolamo Troppa in 1668 for the King of Denmark, and now in the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen. It is especially similar to his representations of Homer and Virgil with which the present painting shares a freedom and fluidity of touch, as are the movement of the drapery folds and the elegance of the chiaroscuro passages.

Girolamo Troppa was active in Rome in the second half of the seventeenth century where he gained distinction for his free and original manner of painting, which did not conform to the prevalent baroque tenets asserted by Bernini and Pietro da Cortona. Moreover, his style was influenced by other artists, most notably Pier Francesco Mola, Mattia Preti and Giacinto Brandi, and it has been described by Francesco Petrucci as ‘tenebrist’ owing to his predilection for strong contrasts of light and shade and an intense tonal range, as in the present painting. Over the course of his long career Troppa worked for patrons in Rome, Ferrara, Umbria and in the Marches.