Seguace di Salvator Rosa (Napoli, 1615 - Roma,... Lot n° 501

Follower of Salvator Rosa (Naples, 1615 - Rome, 1673). The prayer of the prodigal son, with frame. Oil on canvas. cm47x38. The painting replicates, in counterpart, that of Salvator Rosa preserved in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. This work is credited with playing a capital role in Salvator Rosa's historical fortunes on British soil during the 18th century. Horace Walpole praised it as a masterpiece, and more than one engraving passed on its image, before it landed in the collection of Catherine of Russia (1779). Indeed, the prodigal figil became soon one of the most reproduced paintings in Rosa's entire pictorial catalog. It is interesting to point out how the painter was inspired by Albrecht Dürer's print of a similar theme for the type and pose of the figure, as well as for the idea of surrounding it with a group of animals, right down to the timely taking of the boar that appears from the right.