Andrea Vaccaro (Naples 1604-1670)Saint Cecilia
signed with monogram 'AV' (lower left)
oil on canvas
129 x 104cm (50 13/16 x 40 15/16in).注脚Provenance
Given by Canon Shine, President of St. Patrick's College, Thurles, Ireland to the present owners' grandfather on the occasion of his marriage in 1916, and thence by descent


Another version of this subject, also signed with monogram, was sold at Sotheby's, London, 8 July 1999, lot 72 (£35,000). A third version is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest (see: G. de Vito, 'Appunti per Andrea Vaccaro con una nota su alcune copie del Caravaggio che esistevano a Napoli', in Ricerche sul '600 napoletano. Scritti in memoria di Raffaello Causa, Naples 1994-95, p. 137, fig. 55).

The influence of Vaccaro's friend and fellow Neapolitan, Bernardo Cavallino (1616-1656), is particularly evident in this work. He was clearly familiar with Cavallino's atmospheric interpretations of female saints or women playing musical instruments such as his Harpsichordist in the Musée des Beaux Arts, Lyons, Saint Catherine of Alexandria in the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam and his Saint Cecilia in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.