A capriccio harbour scene with figures distributing alms

Domenico Gargiulo trained in Naples in the workshop of Aniello Falcone from 1628, together with Andrea di Leone and Salvator Rosa. His early works were profoundly indebted to Jacques Callots' engravings and to Filippo Napoletano's rendering of figures and imaginary landscapes. Giancarlo Sestieri considers this picture to be a mature work of the artist, datable to circa 1650 (op. cit., p. 312). Compositionally, this landscape is reminiscent of Gargiulo's marine frescoes of the Quarto del Priore at the Certosa di San Martino, Naples, and La Baia at the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples. The architectural features of this work can be compared with the pair of landscapes in the Galleria Visconteum, Milan, which are also collaborations between Viviano Codazzi and Gargiulo.