Lot 2048 Dα

This painting is by the Fleming Hendrick de Somer (confirmation by Prof. Giuseppe Porzio to the consignor), who worked in Naples. The work can be compared with a depiction of the Prophet Elijah in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, which is similar in format and composition (inv. no. 50471). St. Paul of Thebes is shown here with his eyes closed in prayer, holding the rosary in his hands, his head and upper body are slightly bent forward. The depiction of the hermit is striking for its immediacy, which is created by the tight cropping of the picture: The figure of the saint fills the entire surface of the tondo; his hands, beard and the skull before him are cut off by the edge of the picture, and the viewer can almost feel the intensity of his meditation.

Hendrick de Somer learned to depict saints in this powerful way from Jusepe de Ribera in Naples, in whose workshop he worked after moving there from the Netherlands. He went to Naples in around 1624, at a time when Caravaggism was shaping the style in the city. Thus, this depiction of St. Paul is also characterised by the noble face of the old man, the chiaroscuro rendering of the figure and the realism in the depiction of details such as the beard or the wrinkles on the face and hands. De Somer appears in contemporary art literature as Enrico Fiammingo and he was active in Naples until 1656, when he presumably succumbed to the Great Plague (for more on Hendrick de Sommer's life see Giuseppe Porzio: La scuola di Ribera, Naples 2014, passim).