Paolo De Matteis (Piano Vetrale 1662 - Naples 1728), attributed, Dream of Joseph

Paolo De Matteis (Piano Vetrale 1662 - Naples 1728), attributed. Dream of Joseph Oil on canvas, 49 x 65 cm Antique Roman frame called "Maratta", in carved and gilded wood, 61 x 76 cm In Christian tradition, the episode of Joseph's dream is a significant event narrated in the Gospel of Matthew. It is a series of dreams through which Joseph, Mary's husband, receives divine messages that guide his actions in crucial moments. In this particular episode, the angel appears in flight indicating to Joseph the new path to take to escape the harassment of King Herod as written in Matthew (2:13). The stylistic and compositional construction undeniably refers to Naples, in particular to one of the most famous painters of the Neapolitan school of the 17th century: Paolo de Matteis. The work is linked to the style of Giordano, which influenced all the artists of the time: for example, see The Dream of Joseph of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, whose construction, with the angel flying obliquely and Joseph dozing supporting his face with one hand, undeniably refers to our painting. A student of Luca Giordano, De Dominici provides us with a detailed biography of Paolo de Matteis, from which it appears that "from his early years he showed an inclination for painting, so his father, to support his genius, took him to Naples where he went drawing in the churches the works of the most renowned masters of that time. But this study was interrupted by his father who, on the advice of friends, wanted him to learn letters, as a ladder by which to ascend more happily to great honors. But after some time he begged his father to let him" return to painting. Around 1682, he went to Rome where he met the painter Giovanni Maria Morandi, who introduced him to the lively artistic circle that was the Academy of S. Luca, a true melting pot of moderate-Baroque experiences in line with the dictates of the theorist Giovan Pietro Bellori and the painter Carlo Maratta. In Rome he observes and draws the works of the greatest Roman masters and probably came into contact with the large group of French artists present in the city, aligned on the classicist front that united Rome and Paris at the time. In 1683 he returned to Naples and to Giordano's school. The latter deeply influences all of de Matteis' production, if not that of all of Naples. The Neapolitan city of the time was characterized by the coexistence of a Baroque language influenced at times by Cortona and the overcoming of naturalism towards a new style imported directly from Giordano. The latter, in fact, was the bearer of a dual matrix of experiences: on the one hand the classicism of Poussin and P.F. Mola and on the other a more properly Baroque vision that referred to P. Berrettini, P. P. Rubens and G. Lanfranco. In the art of De Matteis, who distinguished himself among Giordano's students also for numerous national and international commissions, there is a synthesis of the master's and Maratta's styles, but he does not lose sight of the works of Solimena or the Cavalier Calabrese Mattia Preti.