Revisiting the Dundee Caracciolo

Abstract

Giovanni Battista Caracciolo (1578–1635), also known as Battistello, was one of the first Neapolitan artists to speak the language of Caravaggio’s brush. Jean-Pierre Cuzin descibed Caracciolo as being “aman of Naples who truly meditated on the dramatic power and austerity of the canvases left in the city by Caravaggio.” Caracciolo’s oeuvre proves that he was a talented early adopter of Caravaggism, and he received some prestigious commissions across his career, throughout which he remained Caravaggesque, except for certain Bolognese intrusions in his late canvases and in his frescoes. One work that requires a refreshed attribution