Grazia e tenerezza "in posa". Bernardo Cavallino e il suo tempo 1616-1656

'If for the short life of Girolamo Santacroce we mourned as a nation, having lost one our most excellent sculptors, for the very brevity of Bernardo Cavallino's we wept for the loss of as much ornament and honour one could ever hope for from a rarely perceptive and accomplished professor of painting. If we review the careful perfection of his drawing or the excellence in his manner of combining parts, accompanied by his noble and brilliant use of colour, it seems almost impossible that any other renowned painter of our times (which in truth are scarce of great artists) could ever equal him.' This is how, De Domenicis, in his celebrated Vite de'pittori, scultori ed architetti napoletani, published in the mid-eighteenth century, begins to weave with truth and fantasy, the life of Bernardo Cavallino, the refined painter of sacred and profane stories, almost all executed for private patrons and collectors. Born at Naples in 1616, and realistically still active after 1650, according to his biographer Mattia Preti formed his compositional approach, his formal elegance and the light tones of this 'Poussin of the Neapolitan's' advanced production.