Leonardo Antonio Olivieri (Martina Franca, 1689 - Napoli, 1752)

Casa Santangelo Collection, Naples

The canvas presented here serves as a dramatic example of 18th-century devotional painting, attributable to the work of Leonardo Antonio Olivieri (Martina Franca, 1689 – Naples, 1752).

Having trained in Naples in the workshop of Francesco Solimena, the artist became known for propagating his master’s stylistic idiom—interpreted here with a marked sense of theatricality. Indeed, the work displays strong affinities with the Neapolitan painting tradition of the first half of the 18th century, evident both in its monumental compositional structure and in the artist’s use of color, which relies on bold chiaroscuro contrasts to define the forms and the intricate drapery of the figures.