Cesare Fracanzano (Bisceglie, 1605 – Barletta, 1651), The Repentance of Saint Peter

Cesare Fracanzano (Bisceglie, 1605 – Barletta, 1651)

The repentance of Saint Peter

Oil on canvas, 112 x 128 cm

With frame, 159 x 184,5 cm

The strong stylistic and formal consonances allow us to identify the hand of Cesare Fracanzano in this canvas. Fracanzano was born in Bisceglie in 1605, son of Alessandro, a painter originally from Verona, who had married Elisabetta Milazzo from Barletta. He received the first rudiments of painting from his father, following him, together with his brother Francesco (1612 – 1656), also a painter, in his travels. Fundamental to his pictorial training and maturation was his choice to move to Naples, around 1616, and enter the workshop of Jusepe de Ribera (1596 – 1652). Cited by De Domenici in his "Lives of Neapolitan Painters, Sculptors and Architects", Fracanzano finds in Naples an environment in great ferment, where some of the most important artists of the century are industrious and where the multiple pictorial directions of the time meet and they collide at the same time. Naturalism and Caravaggism move together with classicist instances, sometimes creating solutions that seem to proceed in parallel. Having returned to Barletta, the city where he will get married and where he will carry out many commissions, he will continue to travel for work. In particular, he will always be sought after in Naples, the city where many of his works are preserved, cited in numerous archival documents, where the high price that had to be paid for his works is also underlined. Painter strongly influenced by Ribera and the great Caravaggio movement, however capable of assimilating and uniting other movements (for example, since the 40s the painting of Giovanni Lanfranco, active in Naples in that period), expresses in this subject, recurring in his work , all his quality and the very strong emotional charge inherent in his work. Saint Peter's repentance, a moment of great emotional impact and profound religious significance, occurs shortly after the arrest of Christ, as told by the Synoptic Gospels. Jesus, shortly before, predicted the disorientation of his apostles and replied to Peter, who was upset at these words, that that same night he would deny him three times, before the rooster crows. After the Master's arrest, Peter was recognized as a disciple but denied it three times, before hearing the crowing of a rooster, repenting and crying bitterly. The meeting with Ribera is highlighted in Fracanzano's iconographic choice to represent Saint Peter in half-length, slightly three-quarter length with tunic and mantle characterized by wide folds, with strong contrasts of light and shadow. The expression of pain on the face is underlined by the expressiveness of the eyes, characterized by a strong shine and the transparency of the tear that runs down the face. The chromatic texture, played on low tones, the broad and fast brushstrokes, create a portrait that is anything but idealized, of such intensity as to make the pictorial material itself vibrate. Fracanzano's pictorial quality is fully expressed in some details, such as the hands, beard or hair, of rare beauty, rendered with great skill, in deep attention to detail and naturalistic research. The attention to naturalistic data, present in some of his works, is expressed here in the beautiful rendering of the rooster, taken from life, which contrasts with the rough rocky backdrop. His works can be seen in some of the main Neapolitan churches, such as S. Domenico Maggiore, St. Maria della Sapienza, Santa Maria della Speranza and Apulian churches such as the Cathedral of Santa Maria Maggiore in Barletta, the Church of Santa Maria di Nazareth in Barletta, or the Cathedral of Gravina and in important museums such as the National Museum of San Martino, the Quadreria dei Girolamini in Naples, the Diocesan Museum of Andria or the Prado Museum in Madrid.