Belisario CORENZIO (Acaia (Greece), 1558 - Naples, c.1649) Miracle scene

Belisario CORENZIO
(Acaia (Greece), 1558 - Naples, c.1649)

Recto: Miracle scene
Verso: Head studies in black stone

Brush, brown ink, blue gouache highlights
Tiled
Watermark: Three crescents
205 x 215 mm

Comparative bibliography: Marguerite Guillaume, Catalogue des dessins italiens- Collection du musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, 2004, pp. 81-84, n. 120
Mario di Giampaolo, "Balducci o Corenzio? Un'ipotesi", in Kunst des Cinquecento in der Toskana, Munich 1992, pp. 330-1, fig. 8, reprinted in Cristiana Garofalo, Mario Di Giampaolo Scritti sul disegno italiano 1971-2008, Firenze 2010, pp. 324-331
Viviana Farina, "Un episodio di committenza genovese nella Napoli del primo quarto del Seicento: la Cappella Massa ai Santi Severino e Sossio", in "Napoli è tutto il mondo" Neapolitan art and culture from humanism to the enlightment, international conference, Rome, june 19-21, 2003, Pisa 2008, pp. 171-184


An artist with a jealous and violent temperament, not hesitating to use the most radical methods to get rid of troublesome competitors, Corenzio was one of the leading Neapolitan artists at the turn of the century. According to Bernardo De Dominici, he worked in Tintoretto's studio before moving to Naples, which is considered unlikely. However, certain points of contact with the graphic work of the Venetian master cannot be denied. He carried out numerous commissions, as the biographer attests: "Son tante le opere sue, che non par credibile aver potuto un solo artefice tante condurne a fine, che quattro solleciti dipintori appena potrebbero tutti iniseme condurle". Corenzio must have arrived in Naples at a very young age, as he is recorded in 1574 as an apprentice to another Greek painter. He is documented in Naples between 1590 and the 1640s' and seems to have worked there throughout his career. His first commission appears to date from the 1590s, including a cycle of frescoes in Santa Maria la Nova and Sant'Andrea delle Dame. The physical type of the figures and the use of blue gouache applied directly with the brush are typical of the artist's graphic style.