Saint Dorothea

A characteristic work by Jacopo Cestaro, the present painting displays the influence of Francesco Solimena and another of his followers, Giuseppe Bonito. It can be compared with both Cestaro's Cleopatra in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, and the Lucrezia in the Solima collection, Naples, dated by Spinosa to the mid-1740s (N. Spinosa, Pittura napoletana del Settecento, 1987, pp. 72-73, nos. 15 and 17). A comparable painting of the same period depicting a Female saint holding a plate of Roses was sold in these Rooms on 29 January 1999, lot 31.

We are grateful to Dr. Riccardo Lattuada for confirming the attribution on the basis of a photograph.