Treasures from Naples to Aix-en-Provence

From our special correspondent in Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône)

Venice is not in Italy, and this summer Naples is not only at the Louvre with the sumptuous exhibition of the treasures of Capodimonte. It is also in the Granet Museum in Aix-en-Provence, where the De Vito collection made the trip. A contrasting collection of 17th-century Neapolitan painting brought together in the 1960s and 1970s by Giuseppe de Vito, a Portici-born telecommunications engineer who made his career in Milan, before devoting himself to the history of art. De Vito collects as he is: as an esthete, as a Neapolitan but also as an engineer.

Each speculation, each acquisition is an opportunity for meticulous documentation work. He weighs his choices, details them, explains them, examines them and handles the history of art with scientific rigor. He will publish 34 booklets, the result of detailed studies on his acquisitions. So much for the engineer. For the aesthete, he measures his favorites so well that he will be invited to exhibit some of them at the Petit Palais in Paris and at Capodimonte in Naples. For the Neapolitan, it fits between the heritage of Caravaggio and Ribera. Two masters anchored in the city and who define its recognition of what is called “Neapolitan”. Caravaggio through the twisting of bodies, the flight of fabrics, the art of chiaroscuro, the seal of elegance. Ribera by the way of making a naturalist figure emerge from the dark.

The Granet Museum poses these two masters as opening figures for the exhibition of treasures from the De Vito collection: with two Saint John the Baptist, child, and in the desert, signed Caracciolo, inspired by Caravaggio who brought his from Naples to Rome via the Borghese collection. And the portrait of Saint Anthony by Ribera, frankly naturalistic, face streaked with wrinkles, bristling with beard, underlined with eyebrows, from which Cavallino or Francazo digress. Armed with these solid postulates, Vito explores. He seeks the feminine of Ribera. Distinguish sublimely adorned elegant women at work in actions that usually require more fury.

Under the brush of Massimo Stanzione, Salomé, adorned with an azure dress embroidered with gold, carries the head of Saint John the Baptist on a tray. Impassive face, plumed hairstyle, smile. In view, Judith holds the head of Holofernes by the forelock, and looks delicately elsewhere. With this elegance of not being offended that Artemisia Gentileschi strives to hold on as long as possible.

Saints pass by carrying the palm of martyrdom: Lucia with her eyes delicately placed on a veil, Agathe with her hand on the cut of the breast that will be cut off, also passes a Madonna of tenderness carrying the child at the height of her face. , and a sobbing Penitent Magdalen. De Bellis, Spinelli, de Rosa, Vaccaro saw Rubens pass by, his colors, his draperies... On the picture rails, the canvases look at the great masters and replay with great gravity the Neapolitan theater, that of this city of parties and dance, where the Spaniards settled, but also that of tragedy: in Naples, the eruption of Vesuvius awaits, deadly and fatal, and the plague of 1656 decimated half of the population.

Death is a permanent meditation, grace a temptation against which we try to insure ourselves, through prayer and rituals: the liquefaction of the blood of San Gennaro on his feast day in September, watched in procession, gives the first omens . In this dramatic context, the angels do not just pass by. They weigh with all their presence on the scene of salvation. Saint Joseph painted by Bernardo Cavallino gives the art of passing away properly: at his bedside, the wings of a life-size angel slice vertically across the foreground of the scene.

A large format questions: it is signed by the master of the Announcement to the Shepherds. Vito was passionate about his study. He looked for it under the varnishes. And collected other canvases by this master. The reason for this love at first sight? He surprised under his brush the perfect blend of the lessons of Caravaggio and Ribera. That of a man holding a cartouche. That of a youthful figure sniffing a flower. The quintessence of a Neapolitan style is embodied in a nameless master whose paw amazes.

Naples is also Baroque. De Vito collects this style under the brush of Luca Giordano and Mattia Preti. From the second, we linger in the twist of a dramatic Deposition captured against a leaden sky. From the first, we remain dumbfounded by the head of Saint John the Baptist painted like a still life, flat, beard, skin, linen, saber, motionless drama where a thousand shades of gray vibrate. In his collection, De Vito took care to include some genre scenes. Paintings of battles, still lifes by Giuseppe Recco with fish still prancing in the kitchen, bouquets of flowers by Luca Forte that come undone and keep intact in their petals or their translucent cherries the ephemeral radiance of the passing day.

“Naples for passion. Masterpieces from the De Vito collection”, at the Granet Museum, Aix-en-Provence (13), until October 29. www.museegranet-aixenprovence.fr