After Domenico Gargiul, Oil on Canvas, Framed

Description

Oil on canvas.
The large landscape is dominated by an imposing architectural structure with columns overlooking the sea, which occupies … more Oil on canvas.
The large landscape is dominated by an imposing architectural structure with columns overlooking the sea, which occupies the entire central part of the canvas, while a fortress is outlined on the right.
The scene is then animated by numerous figures of commoners intent on their daily activities: in the foreground on the left, on the quay, a group of men are waiting to load numerous crates and trunks.
On the central trunk, near the dominant figure in the center who seems to be directing the operations, the monogram D.G. is inserted.
This monogram, together with the baroque stylistic mode, suggests attribution to Domenico Gargiulo, stage name of the Neapolitan painter Micco Spadaro (1609/1612 - 1675).
Active mainly in Naples, especially in the two decades straddling the middle of the seventeenth century, Gargiulo established himself mainly as a landscape painter and above all for having documented the tumultuous events of seventeenth-century Naples (eruptions, epidemics, Masaniello's revolt).
The progressive specialization in the representation of landscapes or city scenes, crowded with figurines presented with minute descriptions and with attention to the popular social reality, meant that his patronage was mainly private, receiving commissions from numerous Neapolitan notables, regents, knights and finding his works in all the most important Neapolitan collections of the time.
Among his major clients was also the great Flemish collector Gaspare Roomer, to whom Gargiulo owed his fortune.
Gargiulo often inserted his initials in his works, but he rarely dated them; it has been possible to establish the dating of his production only thanks to the realization of a series of works for the monks of the Carthusian monastery of S. Martino, which took place between 1638 and 1646, among the few works of religious subject he made but the only ones to be documented with a certain precision.
The large canvas proposed here is presented in a style frame. This piece is attributed to the mentioned designer/maker. It has no attribution mark and no
official proof of authenticity,
however it is well documented in design history. I take full responsibility for any authenticity



issues arising from misattribution less