(born circa 1590, active in Naples and Southern Italy between the 1620s and 1640s)
The victory of the Hebrews over the flames,
oil on canvas, 183 x 242 cm, framed

We are grateful to Gianni Papi for suggesting the attribution on the basis of a photograph and for his help in cataloguing the present painting.

This composition represents the biblical episode recorded in the Book of Daniel (3: 1-26) when Nebuchadnezzar punished three Hebrew youths who refused to adore a large golden statue erected by the king, before which all of his subjects were to kneel. The three youths were sentenced to be burned in a fiery furnace that was heated to seven times its usual temperature. However, due to divine intervention, the three youths were able to walk in the flames unscathed, while their captors who had thrown them into the fire, fell into the furnace and were burned alive.

Given its size and the many figures in the composition, this work was evidently a significant undertaking and an important commission for the Master of Fontanarosa, now credibly identified as Giuseppe di Guido (see G. Porzio, La scuola di Ribera, Naples 2014, in part. pp. 22-24, 33-34, 48-57, 212-216). The Master of Fontanarosa (whose moniker derives from the Last Supper conserved in the Parish church of Fontanarosa in the province of Avellino) was an important artist who was certainly active during the third and fourth decades of the seventeenth century. It is known that Giuseppe di Guido was still alive in 1641, from a document published by Porzio in 2014.

A masterpiece such as the Fontanarosa Last Supper, and other works such as the Martyrdom of Saint Biagio in a Florentine private collection and Saint Jerome in another private collection, are sufficient to give Giuseppe di Guido a leading role in Neapolitan realist painting. These works reveal his stylistic proximity to the work of Battista Caracciolo (who may have been di Guido’s teacher) as well as to Filippo Vitale and the circle of Ribera. However, this artist’s work is clearly identifiable from that of his influencers owing to his absolute mastery of an entirely personal style. His catalogue of works is, at present limited, and this new addition is therefore of particular significance.

Confirmation of this painting’s status as an autographed work by Giuseppe di Guido, called the Master of Fontanarosa, is attained by comparing certain figure types which are typical of his oeuvre: in the present work for example, the torturer on the right throwing the Hebrew youth into the fire, or that of the standing soldier pointing to the golden statue of the king on the left can be compared for their compact deployment of media and their physiognomies, with the features of the apostles in the Last Supper, the tormentors in the Martyrdom of Saint Biagio and the apostles in the Assumption of the Virgin in San Giorgio Armeno, Naples, which was executed by di Guido in collaboration with Teodoro d’Errico (in the upper section).

The complex drapery folds with rounded ridges – as exemplified by the ochre mantle in the foreground of the present work – are typical of the Master of Fontanarosa and similarly occur in works such as the Saint John the Baptist at the Well (location unknown) which was recently published by Porzio (see op. cit., 2014) and by Viviana Farina (see V. Farina, Per Giuseppe di Guido alias il Maestro di Fontanarosa, in: Davanti al naturale. Contributi sul movimento caravaggesco a Napoli, ed. by F. de Luca and G. Papi, Milan 2017, pp. 84-103). The youthful features of the latter can also be closely compared to those of the three Hebrew youths, for which it appears the same model was used. Even the features of Delilah seen in profile in Sampson and Delilah, in a private collection, Rome, referred to the Master of Fontanarosa by Farina in 2017, can be compared almost exactly with those of the young Hebrew turned in profile to the left in the present painting.

In terms of chronology, this work should be dated to the 1630s, at a time close to the canvas by the Master of Fontanarosa for San Giorgio Armeno which is documented in 1632.