Madonna degli Angeli

The canvas depicts a dear and widespread theme among the various currents of the Franciscan order: that of the Madonna degli Angeli. The Virgin, seated on a throne with the Child, is surrounded by a host of angels immersed in the clouds - kneeling, in a prayer position, bearing a crown or holding musical instruments - while at her feet St. John the Baptist and St. Francis of Assisi, depicted half-length, seem to assist in absorbed prayer at the scene. The whole composition is immersed in an ethereal light, pale, unreal, dominated by the greyish tones of the clouds, which are contrasted by the warm ones of the almond of light that surrounds the throne, even if the reading is partially disturbed by the conditions of conservation of the canvas. The immediate readability of the composition, the devotional narrative construction, the typology of the characters depicted are all characteristics of Antonio Stabile, a Lucan artist who was most likely to be born in Naples. The Lucan painter was particularly appreciated in the Franciscan circles of the provinces of the Kingdom of Naples - in particular Lucania and Puglia - for his ability to fully interpret the new instances of art that, thanks to the Council of Trento, in 1563, imposed the abandonment of Mannerist intellectual excesses in favour of greater compositional simplification and didactic use of sacred images. The Altamuran canvas was made by the artist most likely around 1582, the date on which he painted the Immaculate for the convent of Saints Severino and Sossio of Naples, a work that shares the same iconic, almost neo-medieval, setting of the Altamura painting, the same typology in the face of the Virgin and the unifying use of light.