Saint Giovanni from Capestrano

Appreciated for the first time on the occasion of the exhibitions in the Palazzo Loffredo in Potenza (2009) and subsequently in the prestigious Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence (2010), the work representing San Giovanni da Capestrano is a valuable testimony of the sculptural activity of the Altamuran Giuseppe Nicola Altieri. As reported by Berloco, who first made it known to the critics, also reporting the inscription and signature on the basement, the statue came from the convent of St. Francis of Assisi in Altamura - no longer exists - and, after the Napoleonic suppressions, it was transferred to the church of San Francesco di Paola in 1867. The saint wears a dark habit gathered at the waist level by a girdle that interrupts the continuity of the drapery, giving life to a play of dense folds. The soft rendering of the model and the naturalistic description of the details infuse a strong realism to the austere face of the character. The great skill in the treatment of surfaces and in the expressive yield leaves no doubt about the artistic formation of the Altieri. In fact, while awaiting documentary findings that prove it, it is likely that the sculptor - as had already happened for his father Filippo - has stayed in Naples at the workshop of some established sculptor, thus coming into contact with the Neapolitan artistic culture. In San Giovanni da Capestrano there are indeed stylistic concordances with the contemporary Neapolitan wooden production. In this regard, comparisons with the works of Gaetano Patalano are appropriate, especially with the Sant'Antonio da Padova in the church of Santa Chiara in Lecce, realized by 1692, close to the sculpture presented here for the expressive vigour, the solemn posture and the careful naturalistic investigation. However, it is obviously to the works of his father Filippo that the artist is more attentive, by virtue of both a primordial formation and the emulation of the techniques and rudiments learned in the workshop that he would lead after the premature loss of the parent, occurred in 1684.