Escuela emiliana (XVII), Seguidor de Giacinto Brandi, Follower of - Santa Rita de Casia en oración

Italian School (Circle of the Roman/Bolognese painting)
Period: 17th Century (c. 1650 - 1680)
Technique: Oil on canvas
Dimensions of the canvas: 33.5 × 58 cm
Conservation status: Good / Acceptable (With signs of aging normal for a piece over 300 years old)
Country of origin: Italy
Framed: Yes, it is included with a gilded frame with gold leaf.
Magnificent oil on canvas in cabinet format (33.5 x 58 cm) belonging to the Italian School of the mid-17th century (Seicento). The work depicts Saint Rita of Cascia in an intimate and fervent attitude of prayer, wearing the strict black habit of the Order of Saint Augustine. She holds a wooden crucifix close to her chest with both hands, her head inclined in a gesture of deep mystical communion and Baroque asceticism.
Stylistically, the piece shows a marked affiliation with the devotional compositions of the Roman milieu and the circle of masters such as Giacinto Brandi (1621–1691) or the Bologna workshops inheriting the lyrical chiaroscuro of Guercino. It stands out for the magnificent play of light with an oblique top lighting, which dramatically separates the face and hands of the saint from the gloom of the background and a twilight glow to the right.
The work preserves an excellent old patina and the legitimate historical craquelure resulting from the natural aging of the binders. A piece of great material honesty, suitable for connoisseurs of convent painting and high-period interior design. It is elegantly presented framed with a gilded frame.
Assessment of Attribution and Historiography
We are looking at a reliable devotional painting in cabinet format (33.5 x 58 cm) executed in oil on canvas. Chronologically and stylistically, the work belongs to the full XVII century within the Italian School.
When addressing the authorship of a piece of this character—unsigned and originally intended for convent devotion or private chapels—the historiographical discipline obliges us to discard the grand first-rank names to focus on the workshop fabric of the most relevant artistic centers of the Italian peninsula. In this case, the work oscillates between three possible authorship orbits:
1. Circle or Workshop of Giacinto Brandi (Rome, 1621–1691)
Rome is the natural epicenter of the cult of Augustinian saints in the Seicento. Giacinto Brandi fixed the pictorial canon of Augustinian mysticism with his famous Saint Rita’s Ecstasy (c. 1670) preserved in the Basilica of Saint Augustine in Campo Marzio (Rome).
The parallel: The compact composition of the veil, the restricted and earthy palette, and the looser brushwork in the exterior sky of the gloomy background immediately evoke Brandi’s circle’s productions. This type of works were usually mid-sized commissions requested from the master’s workshop by noble families related to the order.
2. Bologna Circle: Followers of Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, 1591–1666)
The Emilia-Romagna school stood out for a lyrical assimilation of Caravaggistic chiaroscuro.
The parallel: The modeling of the saint’s face, with that absorbed, downcast gaze, the fullness of the drooping eyelids, and the use of an oblique top light that carves the hands and the crucifix against the shadow, shows a clear affiliation with the intimate compositions of praying saints that emanated from the Bologna workshops in the mid-17th century.
3. Work by an Anonymous Master of the Umbrian or Marche School
Since Casia is in Umbria, local churches and convents in the area were populated with copies and variants by masters active in Perugia, Spoleto or the Marche. These painters, with rigorous technique but more sober and pious execution, supplied a vast devotional market. A rigorous antique dealer would catalog this piece with total confidence as Anonymous of the Italian School, 17th century, a stamp that preserves the purity and authenticity of classical old-master collecting.
Bibliography:
Brandi, G. & Pampalone, A. Giacinto Brandi (1621-1691): Catalogo generale. Rome: Il Bagatto. (Essential for contrasting the treatment of the black fabrics and the mystical illumination of the face).
Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E. Pintura italiana del siglo XVII en España. Madrid: Universidad Complutense. (A landmark text for understanding how these Italian schools and devotional influences flooded inventories of the Golden Age).
Salerno, Luigi. I pittori di vedute in Italia (1580-1830) / Nuovi studi su la pittura italiana del '600. Rome. (In-depth analysis of chiaroscuro and cabinet compositions of the Baroque secondary masters).
Note:
“To guarantee the security and perfect condition of the work, depending on its volume and nature, the transport and delivery may be carried out by the seller.”