Mario Minniti

(Siracusa , 1577 - Siracusa, 1640)

Attributed to

Certainly work of the Roman period, where Minniti, attending the workshop of Lorenzo Siciliano, had the opportunity to meet and accompany Michelangelo Merisi known as "" Il Caravaggio "".

This frequentation allows him to assimilate the Caravaggesque tones, which are certainly not to be compared to those of the Maestro, but which are partly affected by that plastic chiaroscuro of Caravaggio, of which he had become a collaborator, friend and model. In fact, in various works by Caravaggio, his figure is recognizable, having loaned himself to him as a model: see for example "The Child with the Basket of Fruit", "The Concerto", "The Boy Bitten by the Green Lizard", etc.

The style of Minniti can be summarized in the painting in question as a pictorial representation with discreet, almost luministic tones, in which the color is distributed in a formula capable of highlighting the formal aspects of the painting, rather than the plastic ones . For these reasons, Minniti's painting was quite successful upon his return to Sicily (1606), among the various local commissions. & Nbsp;