Completed Continental European before 1800 34 Is this painting of St John the Baptist by Giovanni Battista Caracciolo (1578–1635)?

Topic: Artist

This painting is presently attributed to Italian School (Neapolitan 1635–1660). When it was acquired in 1962 it was attributed to Giovanni Lanfranco. However, the author of its NICE Paintings entry suggests that it might be by the Neapolitan artist Giovanni Battista Caracciolo.

Thank you to Nicholas Gaetano for drawing attention to this painting on the Art Detective discussion ‘Is this by Luca Giordano (1634–1705)?’ and for his earlier suggestion that the artist might be Mattia Preti or Cristoforo Savolini.

York Museums Trust collection item entry: https://bit.ly/3d5deFQ
The NICE Paintings record: https://bit.ly/3bUdMxO

Xanthe Brooke, Continental European before 1800, Entry reviewed by Art UK

Completed, Outcome

This discussion is now closed. Previously thought to be Italian School, this painting has a new attribution to Hendrick de Somer, alias Enrico Fiammingo (1606/1608–1655/1656).

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the discussion, especially to Professor Riccardo Lattuada for first suggesting the attribution and to Professor Nicola Spinosa for confirming it. To anyone viewing this discussion for the first time, please see below for all the comments that led to this conclusion.

33 comments

Jacinto Regalado,

It is very Caravaggio-like, so obviously by a follower.

Jacinto Regalado,

Caracciolo is certainly plausible (Preti was his pupil). Savolini came somewhat later, and I think this picture is closer to Caracciolo.

Nicholas De Gaetano,

I think the painting might date to around 1650s or at most 1660s. When I suggested Preti, I was thinking of his St John the Baptist in Museo di Capodimonte. They share a similar approach to lighting (source in both is top left), and the palette is somewhat similar. But to be clear I don't think it's by Preti, as the approach to painting the feet find no parallels there. In turn, the treatment of the feet find some parallels in the works of Bolognese artists, circling Cagnacci, which is why I suggested Savolini (a very difficult artist as he changed style many times during his career), but again it's not a perfect match overall. The aim of suggesting Savolini was to start a discussion on the painting more than anything.

Can you please make available a high resolution photo? I look forward to researching it further and discussing it as it would obviously be an very important addition to any artist's oeuvre. It really is a great painting.

Jacinto Regalado,

Yes, it's a wonderful picture, which needs to be fully restored, not just cleaned. I do not think it is a copy or a studio work.

Riccardo Lattuada,

Sorry, Nicholas (if I may), I see no links with Preti. It looks to me instead close to Hendrick van Somer, and maybe datable circa 1640. It would be great to receive an HiRes image to go further. It is a powerful work.
All best.

Nicholas De Gaetano,

Van Somer is a very interesting proposal. High resolution photos will help a great deal in researching it further.

Andrew Shore,

It might just be me looking at the screen too much, but it looks like he has six toes on his right foot. Is this due to restoration work from the 60s?

Jacinto Regalado,

Yes, Andrew, it appears the foot has been mishandled.

Nicholas De Gaetano,

St John is not here depicted with six toes. What you are considering as his sixth toe (his second pinkie), is in fact the base of his foot. It's a technique often used in foreshortening throughout history.

Jacinto Regalado,

Well, Novelli could be considered a follower of Ribera. There were so many excellent painters who are now practically unknown!

Hendrick van Somer is a promising proposal. The 'St John the Baptist' posted by Jacinto was in Sotheby’s New York sale of 22 January 2004 (lot 81), oil on canvas 73 by 59 1/2 in or 185.4 by 151.1 cm. The attribution to Hendrick van Somer was suggested by Professor Nicola Spinosa on the basis of photographs. The catalogue entry (quoted on the 'Invaluable' website) refers to the artist as an active member of Ribera's circle in Naples from c.1635 to c.1650. It mentions two publications on him: G.J. Hoogewerff, "Hendrick van Somer, Schilder Nachfolger von Ribera", in 'Oud Holland', vol.60, 1943, pp.158-72, and an article by Nicola Spinosa in 'Napoli, l'Europa - Ricerche di Storia dell' Arte in Onore di Ferdinando Bologna', published by 'Donzelli, Rome, 1996' [but perhaps Meridiana Libri, Scenari, 1995?]. The 'Oud Holland' article is available on Jstor -- in Dutch with a resume in English (the latter attached). The Italian article does not seem to be available online.

Clearly it would be worth consulting Nicola Spinosa about the York picture. He was formerly head of the Polo Museale di Napoli (and recently authenticated the 'Judith and Holofernes' found in a Toulouse attic as being a hitherto lost Caravaggio). Perhaps someone contributing to this discussion has easy access to Nicola Spinosa? If not, I shall attempt to contact him.

Nicholas De Gaetano,

Thanks for the additional information. As curator of the York Gallery, would you be able to make available a high resolution photo of this painting? Before consulting Prof Spinosa, I believe obtaining a high resolution photo will be a first step. Is one readily available? It should be noted that Prof Lattuada, who gave us the attribution above, is also an authority on this artist, so it would be interesting to see if he confirms his view or changes it on the basis of this larger image.

Thanking you in advance

I left York Art Gallery in 2003 -- and regret to say that I am therefore not in a position to supply a high-resolution image. Just at the moment the curatorial staff at the Gallery are furloughed, so I doubt it will be possible to obtain such an image thence until the lockdown is eased. In the meantime, I have found a couple of images on the York Museums Trust website (as attached) which, though not high-resolution, are certainly more in sympathy with the original than the high-contrast image on ArtUK. I think we could approach Professor Spinosa with what we have now, stressing that we hope to send something better as soon as circumstances allow.

I kept this striking painting on permanent display for my 25 years at the Gallery, always hoping that (in those pre-digital days), someone would be able to suggest a convincing attribution. During that time the issue of the number of toes regularly aroused bemusement. However, with thanks for the comments and references above, I do not think there is any reason to believe that the saint's right foot is other than the artist intended.



2 attachments
Jacinto Regalado,

One would think, perhaps naively, that the leading (and best connected) Old Master experts in the UK, at places like the National Gallery, would be highly interested in any picture such as this one in any public UK collection, so as to get the picture properly attributed and placed. I am sure this is not an isolated or particularly rare case, and a database like Art UK is and should be a tool for identifying such pictures. I would say the same about the St Jerome in Cardiff.

Whaley Turco,

I Only have one question. Where is the rest of the painting.

Nicholas De Gaetano,

None of the paintings published in that article, written by a plastic surgeon have six toes, and neither does our poor St John here... From a scientific perspective one can understand that it does indeed look strange, but remember we're not looking at a photograph here. These are paintings, and what's called artistic licences is sometimes used to create artistic effects...

Place your finger on the screen and cover the "second small toe" in each painting published in that article, and the above St John. The foot would seem more unusual than a six-toe foot. The small toe would lose its connection to the base. The front of the foot would lose its roundness. The result is that it would end up looking like a fork seen from the front. The sixth toe is the fleshy base of the outer foot. It's a pictorial device which is there to either indicate perspective or pressure on the foot or both.

Whaley Turco,

I'm not sure who taught you how to draw a foreshortened foot but it bears no relation to our painting. That fellow has 6 toes and half the painting is missing. Since this seems to have been a thing during the renaissance we might want to try a new date and a new group of painters. Or you could continue to try and bully me into thinking That 6th toe doesn't exist. And you Know good luck with that.

I am happy to report that Professor Nicola Spinosa, to whom our thanks are due, has fully endorsed the proposed attribution to Hendrick van Somer. He writes:

'For me, this 'St John the Baptist' is certainly by Hendrick van Somer (or Enrico Somer as he is known in Naples). After 1640, departing from a previous naturalistic and Ribera-esque style, he moved close to the then current ‘neo-Venetianism’, and to the lightened and refined classicism of Simon Vouet [who had been working] in Rome after 1620 and before his return to France. To this period belong the 'Baptism of Christ' in the church of Santa Maria della Sapienza in Naples and the 'St John the Baptist' which some years ago was in the collection of Luigi Koelliker in Milan (see page 117 of the catalogue of the exhibition ‘Ritorno al barocco. Da Caravaggio a Vanvitelli’, which I curated at the Museo di Capodimonte and other Naples museums in 2009 to 2010, published by Arte'm di Napoli.'
[RG's translation]

He also reminds us of his little-known article previously referred to in this discussion: "Aggiunte a [Additions to] Hendrick van Somer, alias Enrico Fiammingo", in 'Napoli, l'Europa: ricerche di storia dell'arte in onore di Ferdinando Bologna', edited by di F. Abbate and F. Sricchia Santoro, Catanzaro 1995, pp. 223-230.

Nicholas De Gaetano,

That’s great!! Congratulations, and complimenti Prof Lattuada for first proposing the attribution! A very important addition to his known works!!

Martin Hopkinson,

Certainly one of the most important discoveries of Art Detective!

Jacinto Regalado,

The painting really should be fully restored by suitable experts.

Mark Wilson,

We need to be careful about dates here, because there actually appear to be two different artists of similar name at this time. There's Hendrick van Somer(en) (1615-1685) a Dutch artist who spends his life in Amsterdam and with nno actual attributed paintings:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrick_van_Someren

And there's our guy, Hendrick de Somer/Enrico Fiammingo (1607-c 1655) who is a Flemish painter who spends most of his life in Naples:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrick_de_Somer

The latter article tries to unravel the confusion.

There are some similarities with the earlier St John sold at Sotheby's in 2004 that Jacinto mentioned (this one's zoomable):

https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/115734

and which Prof Spinosa also identified (https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/lot.81.html/2004/important-old-master-paintings-n07965), including maybe even the same model.

But the York picture is clearly more 'serious' and less sensuous than that and certainly less dramatic and sensuous than than earlier St Johns by Caravaggio and his immediate followers such as Caracciolo. The falling water and the pool also clearly refer to baptism and the glass possibly to a chalice. So there's also more religious symbolism as well.

Thank you for that important clarification. Further biographical details for Hendrick de Somer are on the RKD website:

https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/491800

with references to Marije Osnabrugge, 'The Neapolitan lives and careers of Netherlandish immigrant painters (1575-1655)', Amsterdam 2019, as the apparently definitive source. The RKD indicates that the artist was born between 1606 and 1608, was still living on 3 April 1655 and possibly died in the plague of 1656.

I am not at all sure that the same model appears in both the Sotheby's lot of 2004 and the York painting. I agree with Jacinto (01/05/2020) that the St John in the former is younger, and would add that the model used is leaner and of considerably lighter build than the one appearing in the latter.

I think we can conclude that a new attribution to Hendrick de Somer, alias Enrico Fiammingo (1606/8-1655/56) has been arrived at for York Art Gallery's 'St John the Baptist' (YORAG 1024). Many thanks are due to Riccardo Lattuada for first suggesting the attribution and, after interventions by Richard Green, to the expertise of Nicola Spinosa for confirming so fully the attribution to this Flemish artist who spent his career in Naples, joining the studio of Jusepe de Ribera in 1622, and after 1640 adopting a more Venetian style to which this painting belongs.

Mark Wilson,

Richard - the thing about the similarity of the models was just a passing thought that struck me as I looked at them and the York version is clearly of someone a bit older. But I just wondered if it might be the same model say five years later - a studio assistant perhaps. Oddly enough yet another Somer St John:

https://www.dorotheum.com/en/l/5136731/

might be a younger version that the other two. Probably a coincidence or perhaps an indication that it was how de Somer thought St John 'ought' to look.

As far as I can see this would be the first de Somer on ArtUK and presumably in a UK public collection. You wonder if there are other undetected ones out there.