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Lot Essay
We are grateful to Professors Riccardo Lattuada and Sebastian Schütze for the attribution, made on the basis of photographs. This has been confirmed by Professor Nicola Spinosa, also on the basis of photographs.
Marullo was one of Massimo Stanzione's (c. 1585-c. 1658) most active pupils. Born, like his master, in Orta di Atella, he worked in Naples and in Campania from about 1630 onwards. Indeed it is with Stanzione's oeuvre that this picture most connects. The figure group of Virgin and Child corresponds, in reverse, to that in Stanzione's Rest on the Flight into Egypt of circa 1640-45, known from several versions (Marchese Pier Andrea Delfini, Pontremoli; Santa Maria del Buon Consiglio, Naples; John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota). The figure of Saint Joseph in the present work follows, in reverse, that in the Sarasota picture, while the angel's head is a derivation from one of the two Angels with the Instruments of Passion by Simon Vouet, executed for Cardinal Ascanio Filomarino and now at Capidomonte, Naples and also close to Barachiel in the Seven Angels of the Apocalypse by Francesco Guarino (Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales, Madrid; see Lattuada, Francesco Gaurino, 2000, pp. 185-6, no. E12).
Marullo's oeuvre is represented by large altarpieces in the Churches of San Lorenzo Maggiore and San Michele a Port'Alba, Naples, as well as a Miraculous Draught of Fish at the Museo Campano, Capua. The circumstances of the commission of the present canvas remain unknown, despite the picture's size and exceptional quality.
Marullo was one of Massimo Stanzione's (c. 1585-c. 1658) most active pupils. Born, like his master, in Orta di Atella, he worked in Naples and in Campania from about 1630 onwards. Indeed it is with Stanzione's oeuvre that this picture most connects. The figure group of Virgin and Child corresponds, in reverse, to that in Stanzione's Rest on the Flight into Egypt of circa 1640-45, known from several versions (Marchese Pier Andrea Delfini, Pontremoli; Santa Maria del Buon Consiglio, Naples; John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota). The figure of Saint Joseph in the present work follows, in reverse, that in the Sarasota picture, while the angel's head is a derivation from one of the two Angels with the Instruments of Passion by Simon Vouet, executed for Cardinal Ascanio Filomarino and now at Capidomonte, Naples and also close to Barachiel in the Seven Angels of the Apocalypse by Francesco Guarino (Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales, Madrid; see Lattuada, Francesco Gaurino, 2000, pp. 185-6, no. E12).
Marullo's oeuvre is represented by large altarpieces in the Churches of San Lorenzo Maggiore and San Michele a Port'Alba, Naples, as well as a Miraculous Draught of Fish at the Museo Campano, Capua. The circumstances of the commission of the present canvas remain unknown, despite the picture's size and exceptional quality.