Giovanni Bernardino Azzolino

J.W. Brett, 1833;
E. Dwight, 1837, by whom given to an institution where it remained until the early 1990s;
Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, New York, 11 January 1996, lot 174 (as by Pietro Novelli);
There purchased by Dr. Hilary Koprowski.

Boston, Boston Athenaeum, 1833, no. 9 (as by Caravaggio);
Boston, Boston Athenaeum, 1837, no. 116 (as by Caravaggio).

R.F. Perkins and W.J. Gavin, eds., Boston Athenaeum Art Exhibition Index, 1827-1874, Cambridge 1980, pp. 30, 285;
S. Causa, La strategia dell'attenzione : pittori a Napoli nel primo Seicento, Naples 2007, p. 41, reproduced fig. 7 (as Azzolino).

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work has been effectively restored. It could be hung in its current state if the varnish were slightly freshened. The canvas has a good lining. Retouches are carefully applied. Small spots of retouching are to be expected in a work of this period, particularly in the darker colors, and the only concentration of retouching is around the heads of the figures in the upper left, where some cracking has developed.
"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."

We are grateful to Nicola Spinosa who, based on a photograph, has identified this painting to be a work by Giovanni Bernardino Azzolino.

Azzolino, trained as both a painter and sculptor, was a native of Sicily.  He is recorded in Naples from 1594 where he received commissions for the decoration of numerous local churches.  Though undoubtedly aware of the innovations in Caravaggio’s work and other artists in his circle, such as Jusepe de Ribera (who married Azzolino’s daughter), his personal style was influenced more by such contemporary Neapolitan painters as Belisario Corenzio and Fabrizio Santafede.