Hendrick de Somer St. Paul of Thebes Oil on... Lot 2048

Hendrick de Somer St. Paul of Thebes Oil on wood. 53.4 x 53.4 cm. Provenance Italian art ownership. The painting represents a work of Flemish Hendrick de Somer, active in Naples (confirmation of Prof. Giuseppe Porzio to the consignor), which can be compared with a representation of the Prophet Elijah in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, similar in format and composition (inv. no. 50471). St. Paul of Thebes has his eyes closed in prayer, he holds the rosary in his hands, his head and upper body are slightly bent forward. The depiction of the hermit impresses with its immediacy, which is created by the narrow detail of the picture: The saint fills the entire picture surface conceived as a tondo, his hands, his beard as well as the skull are cut through the edge of the picture, the viewer almost feels the intensity of his meditation. Hendrick de Somer learned to depict a hermit in this powerful way in Naples from Jusepe de Ribera, in whose workshop he worked after moving from the Netherlands. He went to Naples around 1624, at a time when Caravaggism was shaping painting there. Thus, this representation of St. Paul is also determined by the sublime face of the old man, the chiaroscuro in the rendering of the figure and the realism in the depiction of details such as the beard or the wrinkles on the face and hands. Appearing in contemporary art literature as Enrico Fiammingo, he was active in Naples until 1656, when he presumably succumbed to the Great Plague (on Hendrick de Sommer in general, see Giuseppe Porzio: La scuola di Ribera, Naples 2014, passim).