Pietro Bardellino (Naples, 1732 – Naples, 1806), Sacred Heart of Baby Jesus, oil on canvas

Pietro Bardellino (Naples, 1732 – Naples, 1806), attributed. Sacred Heart of Baby Jesus Dimensions: with frame, cm W 86 x H 99 x D 8; canvas only, cm W 78 x H 64 Price: private negotiation Item accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and expertise (downloadable at the bottom of the page) The oil on canvas painting depicts the Sacred Heart of Baby Jesus. Stylistically, the work is attributable to Pietro Bardellino (Naples, 1732 – Naples, 1806), a pupil of Francesco De Mura and considered by critics to be one of the most talented and sensitive exponents of the Rococo style in Naples. The canvas represents Baby Jesus, surrounded by flowers in an outdoor setting, while showing the Sacred Heart. The canvas presents a well-balanced color scheme and a marked sweetness in the features of the baby, who, with a knowing gesture of his right hand, involves the viewer in the intimate and delicate sharing of the garden in which he sits. The roses, in addition to constituting a beautiful still life, contribute to enriching the Christological message, being bearers of symbolic meanings. Marian attributes par excellence, they are often placed alongside Christ, whose thorns prefigure the Passion. In the canvas, two cherubs are observed in the upper left: according to the Old Testament, God dwells among them: the author therefore implements an iconographic and iconological hyperbole that amplifies its meaning. The iconographic theme of Baby Jesus holding the Sacred Heart spread between the second half of the 18th century and the first of the following century. With the cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Catholic Church intends to honor the Heart of Jesus Christ, one of the organs symbolizing his humanity, which, due to the intimate union with the Divinity, has the right to the adoration and love of the Savior for men, of which His Heart is a symbol. It represents one of the fundamental devotions of Christian life, as it manifests the true face of God, who is lavish and boundless love. It was the French mystic Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (Verosvres, July 22, 1647 – Paray-le-Monial, October 17, 1690) the messenger of the cult, which in 1856 Pope Pius IX extended to the entire Catholic Church. The subject depicted here therefore respects a well-established traditional iconography. Below are some known examples of such representations, which we see are widespread throughout the Italian territory, although in a fairly small number of works, enough to consider this image rare and sporadic. Stylistically, the work is attributable to one of the best pupils of Francesco de Mura: Pietro Bardellino. The painter was born in Naples in 1731; not much is known about his artistic training and his activity before 1756, the year in which he decorated the ceiling of the Incurabili pharmacy. With his subsequent works, he joins the pictorial tradition of Solimena's followers, while demonstrating knowledge of Giacomo del Po's manner, derived from Luca Giordano. In 1773 he became a member of the Academy of Fine Arts, called by Luigi Vanvitelli, and in 1779 he was appointed master of the Royal Academy of Design and Painting. A staunch follower of traditional painting, he remained indifferent to the stimuli of Neoclassicism, which penetrated the Neapolitan environment in various ways, preferring to express himself through a imaginative manner, rich in vibrant colors and luminous effects. In the old apartment of the Royal Palace of Caserta, seven of his canvases, created in his mature years and representing Science and the Arts, Peace and War, Innocence, Simplicity, Truth, Day, Night, are testimony to harmony, pictorial airiness and vigorous chromatic palette, characterized by lively chiaroscuro, that are his own. Attentive to the trends of North-European art, very fashionable at the court of Maria Carolina of Saxony, wife of Ferdinand IV, the painter clarifies the compositions of his master, explaining an elegant Rococo taste in a southern key. In 1803 he was entrusted, together with Desiderio De Angelis, with the nude school at the Academy, then directed by G. B. Wicar; the assignment was confirmed by the Napoleonic government in 1806, the year of his death. The canvas object of this study presents a stylistic approach and a chromatic palette very close to many works of Bardellino with games of putti as the subject. One can observe analogous characteristics such as the combination of pinks with intense blue, the deep gazes of the effigied subjects and the softness of the line with which the painter describes the plump bodies of the Baby Jesus and the putti. Carlotta Venegoni