around 1585 - around 1656 · Naples and Rome

Neapolitan chiaroscuro, classical nobility and concentrated heroines made Massimo Stanzione the great master of Neapolitan painting in the mid-17th century.

Massimo Stanzione was born around 1585 in Orta di Atella, near Naples, and probably died in this city around 1656. Trained in the environment of Fabrizio Santafede, he first shared his activity between Naples and Rome. Its Roman presence is documented in 1617 and allowed him to study Caravaggio, the Caravaggios and classicism of artists like Guido Reni and Simon Vouet. From this meeting a personal synthesis is born: dark backgrounds and directed light give the figures a immediate presence, while drawing, color and measured gestures retain a classic nobility. Returning permanently to Naples before 1630, Stanzione became the most prestigious painter in the city and directed a very influential workshop. He received several chivalric distinctions, a sign of his exceptional social position. He works for churches, brotherhoods, palaces and Spanish sponsors, creating altarpieces, cycles of frescoes, saints, Virgins and heroines biblical. His dialogue with Artemisia Gentileschi, present in Naples, enriches the representation of strong women. Judith with Holofernes' head shows the heroine after the action, calm and focused rather than triumphant. The light isolates the face, the blade, the fabrics and the bloody trophy without transforming the stage into a spectacle. In The Virgin and Child, the same mastery of chiaroscuro serves tenderness and contemplation. Stanzione thus gives to the baroque neapolitan a path that is at once dramatic, elegant and deeply human. The "Massimo Stanzione" selection notably compares Judith with the head of Holofernes and Judith with the Head of Holofernes. His reading favors the material.

Stanzione holds back the moment after the tragedy: the light reveals less the feat than the silent thought of the one who has just acted.