Giovan Bernardino Azzolino in three versions of the Martyrdom of Saint Ursula, in turn dependent on the celebrated prototype painted by Caravaggio for Marcantonio Doria in 1610, though they vary the concentrated format of its depiction and the close bond between killer and martyr.2 This expanded layout – as in the work discussed here – with the motif of the great flag raised in the middle of the action, was also used by Pacecco Di Rosa in a pair of variants on this iconography,3 and these similarities, together with the porcelain-like skin of the saint, led to the erroneous attribution of the Grassi canvas to Pacecco. In reality, the emphatically Riberesque language that defines the Saint Catherine, both in facial features and refined colour scheme, as well as the polished handling of surfaces (if anything more reminiscent of Aniello Falcone’s technique), are instead characteristic traits of the style of Giovanni Ricca. This attribution is supported by comparisons – for example relating to the saint’s face – with certain details of the small altarpiece of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary and Saint Francesca Romana, a documented work of 1634 and a key component of Ricca’s oeuvre (Figs. 1, 4): indeed the unmistakable locks of auburn hair are identical, as are the pearl-like whiteness of the flesh and intense hues of red. Moreover, the recurrent appearance of this saint in the painter’s work, defined on each occasion by brilliant colour – ranging from the Saint Catherine in Turin to the small-scale octagon in a Neapolitan private collection – might suggest some link with the maiden name of Ricca’s wife, Caterina Rossa. Considering that it is conceived with authentic naturalism, particularly acute in the figures of the assassins, whose crude realism stands in counterpoint to the sumptuous refinement of the martyr, the Grassi picture can be closely associated – at a midway point between them – with two other similar scenes of torture attributable to Ricca. These are the earlier and unfortunately damaged version of the Martyrdom of Saint Barbara in the Museo Civico di Castel Nuovo in Naples (from the Real Casa dell’Annunziata), on which the present picture depends for the powerful torso of the executioner seen from behind (Figs. 2, 5); and above all – in the striking sequence of the tormentors and the docile pose of the virgin saint – the Martyrdom of Saint Ursula in the Fondazione De Vito in Vaglia, a masterpiece worthy of Ribera himself (Fig. 3). The painting presented is likely to date from the early 1630s, before the altarpiece for Santa Maria in Portico (mentioned above, in comparison), which is as we have said a work that constitutes one of the rare points of chronological reference for Giovanni Ricca. Giuseppe Porzio
2 See G. Porzio, in Tanzio da Varallo incontra Caravaggio. Pittura a Napoli nel primo Seicento (exh. cat., Naples, 20142015), ed. by M. C. Terzaghi, Cinisello Balsamo 2014, pp. 124125, no. 16. 3 See V. Pacelli et al., Giovan Francesco de Rosa detto Pacecco de Rosa. 1607-1656, Naples 2008, pp. 318-319, nos. 50-52.
97 Giovanni Ricca