NICCOLÓ TORNIOLI Siena, Italy (1606) / Rome, Italy (1651) "Saint Mark and Saint Luke"

Oil on canvas
On the back, in the frame, label of the Delegated Board of Seizure, Protection and Salvage of the Artistic Treasure with Inventory Number "10834", Origin "Film Est." and Collection No. "20.
 
Provenance:
-Private collection, Madrid
 
This work and the previous one (lots nº 234 and nº 235) have been attributed to Niccolò Tornioli based on a canvas from a private collection in Madrid that was sold on the art market in 2018 as “Circle of Giovanni Battista Caracciolo.” The work was acquired by Giacommeti OMP, presented at TEFAF 2019 with unknown authorship and later attributed to Niccolò Tornioli in 2020 by Dr. Giulia Martina Wetson, author of the artist's monograph, identifying the characters such as Saint Philip and Saint James. The three works present similar measurements, and it seems evident that they were part of the same set of works, perhaps an Apostolate in which the four evangelists were also included, representing an important contribution to the artist's catalogue. Painter Niccolò Tornioli trained in Siena with Francesco Rustici (1592-1625) in the Caravaggist style of Rutilio Manetti (1571-1639). In 1635 he moved to Rome with his patron Federico IV Borromeo, becoming a year later court painter of the prince cardinal Mauritius of Savoy. He also worked for Virgilio Spada and his brother Cardinal Bernardino. Important commissions followed one another in the eternal city, such as the decoration of the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament of Saint Peter, commissioned by Pope Innocent an overwhelming monumentality, being works full of mystery in which the characters are represented in half body on a completely dark background, in which their attributes are barely intuited and only powerful lighting reveals the incarnations of the characters, such as hands, chest or face, creating a powerful chiaroscuro. This recovery of Caravaggism mixed with its more baroque character motivated Dr. Wetson to place the date of completion at h. 1645-50 of “Saint Philip and Saint James”, so these two unpublished works would have to be dated in a similar way (see www.giacomettiomp.com/?p=1734).
 
Measurements: 98 x 133.5 cm