Neapolitan school; XVIII century.

Neapolitan School; XVIII century.
"St. Anthony" and "The Education of the Virgin".
Oil on glass.
Measurements: 37 x 30 cm (x2); 46,5 x 39,5 cm (frames, x2).
Pair of devotional scene in which the education of the Virgin and St. Anthony with the Child is represented. Although the subject matter differs in both images, we can appreciate a very similar technical treatment based on a vaporous and fluid brushstroke. In addition, the chromatic range is similar in both scenes, highlighting the brightness of St. Anne's orange mantle.
The distinctive sign of the Neapolitan school has always been its strong naturalistic character, its warm color, with reddish and brown dominants and the cultivation, together with the altar painting, of a type of realistic painting as its best exponent. In Naples the influence of José Ribera was equal or superior to that of Caravaggio. His naturalism, more sensual and material, more vigorous and vehement, less intellectual than that of the latter, becomes permeable over time to Venetian and Flemish influences, enriching color and lightening of technique, especially from 1635. His most faithful disciples are the Fracanzano family, Cesare (1600-51) and Francesco (1612-56), Bartolomeo Bassante (1614-56), Paolo Domenico Finoglia (1590-1645) and some others who later cultivated special genres such as Aniello Falcone (1607-56), Salvatore Rosa (1615-73) or Luca Giordano. However, from the Baroque period onwards, the colors became softer and more nuanced, without opting for tenebrism, but preserving a great theatricality in the representations.