Antonio de Bellis born circa 1616; Active in Naples circa 1636 to circa 1657/8

This unpublished canvas is dated 1642 and represents an important addition to the oeuvre of Antonio de Bellis.  It is a work of his youthful maturity, dating a few years after the completion of his most important early commission, a series of canvases depicting the life of San Carlo Borromeo in the church of San Carlo alle Mortelle, Naples (documented 1636-40, see N. Spinosa, La pittura napoletana del '600, Milano, 1984, reproudced 200-203).   Although dating only a relatively short time later, the level of sophistication and narrative originality exhibited in this Saint Anthony Abbot and the Centaur demonstrate de Bellis' rapid artistic development.  The continued influence of Ribera is clear in the work's dynamic naturalism and coloration (in fact, the painting had traditionally been attributed to Ribera).  By the mid 1640's, de Bellis's style had moved toward Cavallino's more conciously elegant manner. 

The unusual subject  of this painting is described by Saint Jerome in his life of Saint Paul the Hermit.  Saint Anthony, believing himself to be the first desert hermit, had a vision telling him that Saint Paul had lived in the wildnerness before him, and that he should seek him out.  Setting out to find him, Anthony ran into an astounding sight:  

All at once he beholds a creature of mingled shape, half horse half man, called by the poets Hippocentaur. At the sight of this he arms himself by making on his forehead the sign of salvation, and then exclaims, "Holloa! Where in these parts is a servant of God living?" The monster after gnashing out some kind of outlandish utterance, in words broken rather than spoken through his bristling lips, at length finds a friendly mode of communication, and extending his right hand points out the way desired. Then with swift flight he crosses the spreading plain and vanishes from the sight of his wondering companion ["Life of Paulus the First Hermit,"  in Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers, Series II, Vol. VI, Edinburgh 1886, cap. 7].

We are grateful to Nicola Spinosa who on first hand inspection confirms the present work to be by De Bellis.