(Cefalù 1572–1645 Naples)
Martyrdom of Saint Ursula,
oil on canvas, 104 x 128.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
probably Colonna family, early 20th Century;
Private collection, Naples;
Private collection, Rome

Literature:
F. Ferrante, Giovan Bernardino Azzolino tra tardomanierismo e protocaravaggismo. Nuovi contributi e inediti, in: P. Leone de Castris (ed.), Scritti di storia dell’arte in onore di Raffaello Causa, Naples 1988, pp. 136-138, fig. 5;
P. Leone de Castris, La pittura del Cinquecento nell’Italia meridionale, in: La pittura in Italia. Il Cinquecento, Milan 1987, p. 462;
P. Leone de Castris, La pittura del Cinquecento nell’Italia meridionale, in: La pittura in Italia. Il Cinquecento, II, second edition Milan 1988, p. 506, p. 632;
P. Leone de Castris, Pittura del Cinquecento a Napoli. 1573-1606 l’ultima maniera, Naples 1991, p. 311, ill. p. 313;
R. Causa, Due schede per Giovan Bernardino Azzolino, in: Paragone, 28, 1991, p. 78;
S. Schütze/T. Willette, Massimo Stanzione. L’opera completa, Naples 1992, p. 13, p. 15, fig. 6, p. 18;
V. Farina, Giovan Bernardino Azzolino: il mancato soggiorno genovese e l’interesse per Ribera, in: Prospettiva, 1999, pp.160-161, p. 163, fig. 8 and p. 164, note 47;
F. Abbate, La cultura artistica nel regno meridionale tra Manierismo e Controriforma, in: Storia dell´arte nell´Italia meridionale. Il cinquecento, Rome, 2001, pp. 237-238;
V. Pacelli, Del martirio di sant´Orsola di Caravaggio e i suoi copisti, ovvero una renovatio iconografica (Azzolino, Strozzi ed altri), in: M. P. Ferrara (ed.), Per la storia dell´arte in Italia e in Europa. Studi in onore di Luisa Mortari, Rome, 2004, pp.190-191, fig.9;
V. Pacelli, Il martirio di S. Orsola di Caravaggio. Riconsiderazioni sulle copie e su inediti tra Napoli e Genova nella prima metà del ´600, in: Studi di storia dell’arte, 16, 2005, p. 165-167 and p. 174, fig. 2;
S. Causa, Il “pedale smorzatore” di Giovan Bernardo Azzolino, in: La strategia dell´attenzione. Pittori a Napoli nel primo Seicento, Naples, 2007, p. 49;
G. Porzio in: M. C. Terzaghi (ed.), Tanzio da Varallo incontra Caravaggio. Pittura a Napoli nel primo Seicento, exhibition catalogue, Milan 2014,
p. 144, fig. 16.1

This canvas represents the Martyrdom of Saint Ursula, was a rare subject in seventeenth-century painting despite Caravaggio’s celebrated composition of 1610, which is now conserved in Naples (Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano, inv. no. A.B-03840A-L/IS). The painter Giovan Bernardino Azzolino was of Sicilian origin but was prevalently active in Naples. Like other artists of his generation, he was profoundly struck by the innovations introduced into Naples by Caravaggio at the close of the first decade of the seventeenth century. Azzolino attempted to adapt and reinterpret these innovations to his own formal language. The present painting is one of the earliest demonstrations of the influence of Caravaggio’s Saint Ursula on Azzolino.

The young Saint Ursula is surrounded by guards and she is depicted drained of strength with her gaze turned heavenwards, her eyes almost closed with the serene resignation of a martyr. Arrow wounds to her stomach, chest, and neck flow with rivulets of blood that contrast sharply against the pale colour of her flesh. The handling of chiaroscuro and the manner in which the forms are modelled owe debts to the example of Caravaggio, as does the concise manner of representing the scene, with few figures and without indulging too many descriptive details. However, in accordance with counter-reformation cannons, Azzolino does not choose to represent the most dramatic moment in the narrative of the maiden’s execution, but rather the moment when she is overcome by death.

The painter was probably able to see Caravaggio’s painting while it was still in Naples in 1610 and before it was sent to Genoa by the patron, Marcantonio Doria, for whom Azzolino also worked at this time. Indeed, the artist established a close bond of friendship with Doria, who owned forty-seven paintings by the Sicilian.

The present painting has been dated to the second decade of the seventeenth century, and can be compared to other paintings by Azzolino from the period, such as the Saint Apollonia in the church of San Giuseppe in Genoa, which depicts a maiden and guards that are very similar to those in our painting (see Ferrante in literature). Only Farina has dated the present Saint Ursula to the second half of the third decade, drawing attention to the influence of Ribera, the artist’s brother-in-law from 1616 (see Farina in literature).

Two other versions of the present composition are known: one of vertical format which is conserved in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena (inv. IBS 60, see Farina in literature) and another, which is closer to the present composition, which is in a private collection and was recently rediscovered (see Porzio in literature).