Marzio masturzo

These significant canvases, representing a pair of spacious "War Scenes" (oil on canvas, 48 x 98 cm without frame and 62 x 110 cm with frame), with dynamic composition and extensive landscape setting, are a typical testimony of Marzio Masturzo (active in Naples and Rome in the second half of the 17th century). In the foreground on the left, under a hill surmounted by fortifications with a mighty round tower, a fierce clash takes place between a group of knights, armed with long pikes and raising a flag, attacked by knights who fire their pistols at them; knights thrown from their saddles and horses collapsing to the ground, with abandoned weapons, complete this main scene, suggestively illuminated as if by sudden flashes. This is contrasted, as usually found in Masturzo's "battles", by the clear expanse of a vast plain, in which other isolated episodes and other epicenters of the war event are represented with a progressively reduced expository scale, from whose skirmishes clouds of dust rise. Masturzo's authorship is evident with clear obviousness due to the full and brilliant confirmation of his unmistakable stylistic signature, further expressed at his best qualitative levels, as can be deduced from a comparison with his paintings published by the undersigned in the volume I Pittori di Battaglie. Italian and foreign masters of the 17th and 18th centuries (De Luca editore, Rome 1999, pp. 103-109 and 382-393). Masturzo was a very prolific painter, moving from an initial realistic tendency towards a fully Baroque taste with eminently decorative purposes, evidently meeting the appreciation of collectors of this genre, as evidenced by the substantial catalog that could now be drawn up of his activity. Nevertheless, a total absence of documentary data must be lamented, which is partly compensated by the news reported about him by the biographer B. De Dominici (Vite dei Pittori, Scultori ed Architetti napoletani, Naples 1744, III, pp. 254-55), in the margin of the long Life of Salvator Rosa. Marzio, after having attended Aniello Falcone's school together, the modern Neapolitan leader of the sector, enjoyed his friendship and teaching, with a long direct acquaintance that then continued in Rome, having followed him in his transfer. In addition to anecdotal news about this relationship between master and pupil, De Dominici also reports colorful but acute critical judgments, such as "a certain crudeness in the rendering of the countries and stones" and "a variation in certain excessive contour resentments", that is, a lack of the soft chromatic roundness of Rosa, his direct inspirer. In fact, Masturzo, from his first more realistic examples, together with those of Falcone, evolved towards more rounded figures and of less incisive delineation, but with valid inventive originality and executive fluency: this is what has made his personality well identifiable. The painting examined here offers us, as already underlined, a significant testimony, reflecting his most typical peculiarities. The paintings and art objects published here are my exclusive property and consequently are always available to be viewed in person, by appointment, in my exhibition venues located in Sanremo and Brescia. The work, like all our objects, is sold with a photographic FIMA certificate of authenticity and legal provenance; this document identifies the object, adding value to the item. We personally handle and organize the packaging and shipping of works of art with insurance worldwide. Dr. Riccardo Moneghini Art Historian