Massimo Stanzione

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden, who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting seems to have been abandoned , perhaps in the crypt of a church, exposed to damp and to dents and minor tears. It was trimmed slightly at the sides and top and restretched onto another stretcher a century or two ago. At some point a few tears were patched with old paper from an early ledger and later two patches of thin cardboard stopped up other minor holes. These were daubed over roughly, and once rather more widespread repaint was added when the painting must have been restretched and hung. All the overpaint is now darkened to different degrees, but all are dramatically disfiguring. Essentially however the original paint has not apparently been worn or rubbed at all significantly. Individual accidental damages are far less important to the painting overall than wear. In this case most of the damages have also largely missed the central figures. Relining of course would immediately secure the punctures and dents. The most widespread overpaint might prove comparatively straightforward to remove as apparently over old varnish, for instance that across the face of St Catherine. The blanching from dripping water could possibly be regenerated fairly systematically, depending how long and how deeply it has affected the paint. These are important unknowns at the moment but the underlying painting looks as though the delicate modelling for instance in the hands and face, or the back of the executioner and shadows in the drapery, all so easily worn, have crucially not been rubbed and this is by far the most critical factor. Any of the other problems look likely to be treatable. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
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We are grateful to Professor Riccardo Lattuada for proposing an attribution to Massimo Stanzione and to Professor Nicola Spinosa for independently endorsing the attribution, each on the basis of photographs.  Comparable works by Stanzione include the signed Saint Dorothy in a private collection in Rome and the Lucretia in the Galleria Durazzo Pallavicini, Genoa, both datable to the 1630s.¹

An alternative attribution to Franceco Guarino, who worked alongside Massimo Stanzione in the 1630s, has also been suggested.

1. S. Schütze and T. Willette, Massimo Stanzione, Naples 1992, pp. 212-3, cat. nos. A53 and A56.I.