(Naples active 1625–1650)
The Annunciation to the Shepherds,
oil on canvas, 145 x 265 cm, framed

Provenance:
Aristocratic collection, Naples;
and thence by descent to the present owner

The present composition contains clear references to two seperate artists from divergent artistic centres. The left half of the composition reiterates an invention by the Master of the Annunciation to the Shepherds, and specifically part of his eponymous painting in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (inv. no. 1947P7), dated circa 1630; the basis from which this anonymous artist’s production was first reconstructed (see N. Spinosa, Il Maestro dell’Annuncio ai pastori e i pittori dal ‘tremendo impasto’, Rome 2021, p. 68, no. A10). In the present painting these derivations include the shepherd in the foreground with his left arm raised to shade his face from the blinding light coming from behind the putti bearing scrolls, as well as the three sheep in the foreground and the other shepherd resting upon one of these. The right side of the composition revisits the subject of the Departure of Abraham depicted by Jacopo Bassano in a canvas in a private collection, published in an engraving by Jan Sadeler (1550–1600) towards the end of the sixteenth century. This engraving allowed Bassano’s invention to enjoy a wide circulation and use by other contemporary and later artists (see: A. Ballarin, Jacopo Bassano: ‘l’Annunzio ad Abramo della partenza per Canaan’, Giusti del Giardino, in: Artibus et historiae, 56, 2007, pp. 33–48).

The present painting is by an artist in the circle of the Master of the Annunciation to the Shepherds; it reveals certain stylistic traits typical of seventeenth-century Neapolitan painting, including the boldly accented chiaroscuro of the figures, such as is employed in the sleeping shepherd in the foreground as well as to describe Abraham. This handling of light also serves to heighten the white of the sheep and Abraham’s robes, applied with loaded brushstrokes, serving to contrast with the prevalently ochre palette of the rest of the composition. Indeed, this painting can be related to all those grouped on grounds of style and composition with the Master of the Annunciation to the Shepherds and his ambit (see op. cit. Spinosa 2021).

The Master of the Annunciation to the Shepherds was probably of Spanish origin but worked in Naples from circa 1630 to 1650. His identity remains unknown and has instigated numerous theories from scholars. In 1935 Roberto Longhi, followed by John T. Spike, asserted his identification with Bartolomeo Bassante (1618–1656), a Neapolitan follower of Ribera (1588–1562) in the 1630s, who painted a series of works on the theme of the five senses which were in the collection of Filippo Piscane, Marquis of San Leucio, Naples, until 1702. Subsequently, Ferdinando Bologna questioned this identification. It has been suggested that the artist may be identified as Francesco Fracanzano (circa 1644–1685) and then as Giovanni Do (circa 1604–1656), but despite a consolidated corpus of work, the debate on the specific identification of this painter remains far from closed.