Neapolitan school; 17th century.

Neapolitan school; 17th century.
"Saint Jenaro".
Oil on canvas.
The original canvas is preserved.
It presents faults, restorations and perforations.
Measurements: 140 x 113 cm.
The distinctive sign of the Neapolitan school has always been its strong naturalistic character, its warm colour, with reddish and chestnut dominants and the cultivation, together with the altar painting, of a type of realistic painting as its best exponent. In Naples, Ribera's influence was equal to or greater than that of Caravaggio. His naturalism, more sensual and material, more vigorous and vehement, less intellectual than Caravaggio's, eventually became permeable to Venetian and Flemish influences, becoming richer in colour and lighter in technique, especially from 1635 onwards. His most faithful disciples were the Fracanzano family, Cesare (1600-51) and Francesco (1612-56), Bartolomeo Bassante (1614-56), Paolo Domenico Finoglia (1590-1645) and some others who later cultivated special genres such as Aniello Falcone (1607-56), Salvatore Rosa (1615-73) and Luca Giordano. However, from the Baroque period onwards, the colours became softer and more nuanced, no longer opting for tenebrism, but retaining a great theatricality in the representations.
Saint Jennaro was bishop of Benevento and is a martyr and saint of the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. Although no contemporary sources on his life survive, later sources and legends state that he died during the Great Persecution, which ended with the removal of Diocletian in 305. He is the patron saint of Naples. According to various hagiographies, Januarius was born in Benevento into a wealthy patrician family that traced its ancestry to the Caudini tribe of the Samnites. At the age of 15, he became the local parish priest of his Benevento parish, which at the time was relatively pagan. When Januarius was 20, he became bishop of Naples. During the year and a half of persecution of Christians by Emperor Diocletian, he hid his fellow Christians and prevented them from being captured. Unfortunately, while visiting Sossius in prison, he too was arrested.