FRANCESCO SOLIMENA ('L'ABATE CICCIO') 4 October 1657 Canale di Serino - 3 April 1747 Barra bei Neapel SAINT MARTIN CUTS HIS RED PALUDAMENTUM AND GIVES IT TO A POOR, UNCLOTHED MAN UNBEKLEIDETEN MANN Oil on canvas (edge relined). 83 x 118 cm (F. 107 x 141 cm). Part. min. old rest. Frame. Öl auf Leinwand (Seitenrand doubl.). 83 x 118 cm (R. 107 x 141 cm). Part. min. rest. Professor Martini notes: 'The painting [...] is, in my opinion, a typical work by Francesco Solimena [...]. It is a version, provided with remarkable variants, of one of his two paintings in the Chapel of St. Martin in the Charterhouse of the same name in Naples, painted in 1733 (see F. Bologna, Francesco Solimena, 1958, p. 197.); it cannot be ruled out either that this is the preparatory modello for that altarpiece. Stylistically, it represents the artist's more mature creative period, since his painting appears with all the best features and formal characteristics, a strong chiaroscuro for a masterly modelling, a wise and balanced composition and, moreover, a moderate and at the same time splendid mastery of colour, highlighted above all by the very beautiful red vermilion, as St. Martin's cloak shows in this case, as the ideal centre of the picture. It is also interesting to note that this work was completed at the same time of the altarpiece 'The Annunciation' that Solimena painted for the church of S. Rocco in Venice: in this one we find indeed the same strong chiaroscuro, the same beautiful light and so also the same way of draping the fabric'. Es ist auch interessant festzustellen, dass dieses Werk zur gleichen Zeit der Altargemälde Expertise: Attached undated handwritten expertise by Professor Egidio Martini (Venice) in Italian (German translation enclosed). wunderschöne Licht und so auch die gleiche Art und Weise der Stoffdrapierung.' Provenance: Rhenish Private Collection. Previously: Italian Private Collection (passed on by inheritance.)