Massimo Stanzione.
Next in significance after Caravaggio and Ribera comes Massimo Stanzione (1585?- 1656) The information on Stanzione comes from the Neapolitan Vasari, De Dominici who tells us the artist was born in 1585 about 15 kms north of Naples in Orta di Atella.[1] De Dominichi tells us Stanzione entered Santafede’s studio and then Caracciolo’s before moving on to Rome which allowed him to observe the transition in styles in the first phase of Neapolitan painting. Stanzione is documented in Rome about 1617 with established painters like Cavalier d’Arpino, Roncalli, Saraceni and Honthorst. It is likely that he also studied neo-Venetianism in Rome and classicism enshrined in the work of the Carracci in Rome as shown in academic nudes like his Cleopatra (St Petersburg). Stanzione began his career as a portrait painter, a good example is the Portrait of a Woman from the mid 1630s (San Francisco). This seems to be the same model that appears in his Judith and Holofernes (New York) (above) which in its colouring may owe something to Artemesia. Stanzione was one of those painters who could assimilate any style into his own production, Caravaggio, the Gentileschi, Guido Reni, Poussin; this focused eclecticism served him well when he was seeking to establish himself in both Rome and Naples.
[1] Bio in Painting in Naples, 156-7.
Comments