Domenico Gargiulo, called Micco Spadaro

Naples, Museo di Capodimonte, Ritorno al Barocco da Caravaggio a Vanvitelli, 12 December 2009-11 April 2010, no. 1.109.

B. Daprà in Ritorno al Barocco, exhibition catalogue, Naples 2009, pp. 216-7, no. 1.109

The following condition report is provided by Hamish Dewar, who is an external expert and not an employee of Sotheby's. UNCONDITIONAL AND WITHOUT PREJUDICE Structural Condition The canvas has a very old lining which is stained on the reverse and has a stenciled stamp in the upper right as viewed from the reverse. The stretcher is slightly bowed but the overall structural condition is sound and secure. Paint Surface The paint surface has a discoloured varnish layer and should respond very well to cleaning. There is a slight overall craquelure pattern which is entirely stable. Inspection under ultraviolet light shows the varnish layers to be very discoloured. Retouchings are difficult to identify under ultraviolet light but there would appear to be scattered areas of retouching particularly in the darker pigments and these would seem to be most concentrated in the lower right quadrant, along the lower horizontal framing edge, and in the dark shadows of the upper left quadrant. There is also an area of what would appear to be retouching in the sky, which measures approximately 6 x 2.5 cm. There are other scattered retouchings across the paint surface and there may well be retouchings which are not identifiable under ultraviolet light. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in reasonably good and stable condition and the fine details of the central figures appear intact and the painting should respond very well to cleaning.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This beautiful Adoration by Domenico Gargiulo is an exciting new addition to the artist's oeuvre and one of the artist's grander known compositions.   

Gargiulo trained in the studio of Aniello Falcone in Naples, where his fellow pupils included Salvatore Rosa and Andrea di Leone, both of whom were important influences on his developing style.  His posthumous biographer de Dominici recounts how he and Rosa used to head out into the Neapolitan countryside to sketch the landscape.¹  Although the present composition has little in the way of landscape there is a freshness and spontaneity to the mountains, just visible in the far distance, and the foliage in the foreground, presumably honed during these outdoor sketching trips.  In his more open landscape there is a wildness and a freedom only hinted at here.

During the 1640s Gargiulo began to collaborate with Viviano Codazzi inserting small figures into his architectural capriccios.  In the present painting Gargiulo's careful execution of the architectural elements are clearly influenced by Codazzi's more measured style, however, it is the figures that lend the composition its monumentality. 

Gargiulo's works were more commonly populated by small, animated figures, as visible here back left, and the size and monumentality of the foreground figures here is unusual.  The Madonna and Christ Child are reminiscent of Gargiulo's fellow Neapolitan Bernardo Cavallino, but it is the figures of the three kings that particularly draw attention. Caspar kneels in homage to Christ, his vibrant yellow cloak spread out dramatically behind him, Balthazar's position in alignment with the pillar gives his stance an added gravitas and Melchior's ornate cloak is lifted out, as if for display, by the children lower right.  These little boys playing with his cloak, one of whom looks directly out of the painting, add a real sense of pictorial immediacy to the composition.  Although clearly and recognisably a biblical scene these small boys have a very contemporary feel and one can as much imagine them on the streets of seventeenth century Naples as in the Adoration.

1. B. de Dominici, Vite dei Pittori Sciiltori ed Architetti Napolitani, vol. III, Naples 1742-4, pp. 190-213.