School of Ferrara of the late sixteenth century

Giuseppe Mazzuoli known as Bastarolo (Ferrara 1536 - 1589), circle

St. Jerome penitent in the cave

Oil on copper, 23 x 18 cm.

In frame 28 x 24

Notes: On the back of the rummy, stamp imprinted in sealing wax with MM monogram

This representation of the penitent St. Jerome, still in a sixteenth-century style, due to color evidence and a plastic treatment of the figurative dimension, can be placed in the context of an author from Ferrara active in the late sixteenth century.

The saint is portrayed in half-length with his typical iconographic attributes: the crucifix to which to address adoration, the skull symbol of penance on the left hand resting on a closed book, and finally the stone that he holds with his right hand.

Depicted in a three-quarter length half-length, with a beard and long hair, Saint Jerome occupies the space in the foreground, evoking in particular the period of hardness and solitude spent in the desert. The long and disheveled hair, the gaze that turns downwards, restore the sense of an icon of faith that ignites religious devotion and invites spiritual reflection and repentance.

The style characters of our rummy would make us circumscribe the authorship to an author from the circle of Giuseppe Mazzuoli, known as Bastarolo (Ferrara 1536 - 1589), whose pictorial lexicon is in fact based on the figurative tradition of Ferrara, from which the gaudy chromatism and on and intense naturalism, and on the knowledge of Emilian and Venetian painting.

Consider that with the seventies and eighties Mazzuoli's moment of greatest fame opens, whose painting presents a progressive orientation towards more simplified compositions, which collect the counter-reformed instances of the changed Ferrara religious climate and therefore the particular needs of the client.

These characteristics can be grasped by observing the work in question, similar to the accomplishments of the painter's maturity.

Work in excellent condition. Antique frame, not coeval.

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Painting accompanied by a certificate of photographic authenticity in accordance with the law.