HENDRICK DE SOMER (ENRICO FIAMMINGO)

(Lokeren o Lochristi, Bégica, 1607 - Nápoles, h. 1655))

HENDRICK DE SOMER (ENRICO FIAMMINGO) Belgium (1607 - c. 1655) / Naples, Italy "The Healing of Tobit", 1632(?)

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated in the lower right corner, on the leg of the chair. Provenance: Madrid, collection of the Duke of Medina de las Torres. On the reverse, affixed to the frame, a label from the Junta de Incautacion y Proteccion del Patrimonio Artistico (inventory no. 4739). Bibliography: Perez Sanchez, A.E., “Curacion de Tobias”, in Pintura napolitana. De Caravaggio a Giordano, exhibition catalogue, Museo Nacional del Prado, October-December 1985, pp. 352-353. Exhibitions: Pintura napolitana. De Caravaggio a Giordano, Museo Nacional del Prado, October-December 1985, cat. no. 163. Despite his Flemish origins, Hendrick de Somer's professional career developed in the city of Naples, within the circle of the painter Jose de Ribera, of whom he is thought to have been a pupil. His early works already show this influence, though his output also reveals echoes of Caravaggio and of Matthias Stomer, another Flemish artist with whom he kept in contact. Works such as the Baptism of Christ, painted for the Neapolitan church of Santa Maria della Sapienza in 1641, perfectly demonstrate his dependence on Ribera's models, although in the paintings of his final period the influence of painters such as Stanzione or Cavallino can be seen, softening the chiaroscuro and opening up more towards Venetian colouring. In recent decades, art criticism has ranked this artist as the finest of the Flemish painters who worked in Naples in the first half of the 17th century. Apart from the aforementioned Baptism of Christ, very few works can be attributed to the painter with certainty, hence the importance of this canvas depicting the Healing of Tobit, from the collection of the Duke of Medina de las Torres. The work was presented by Perez Sanchez in 1985 in the anthological exhibition devoted to Neapolitan painting and organised by the Museo Nacional del Prado. On that occasion he proposed a possible attribution, noting that during the cleaning process the signature [E.S] had emerged, together with a date, possibly 1632, which was difficult to read; this same signature is identical to that found on some of his few signed works, such as the Roman Charity in a private collection (see the Fototeca Zeri record no. 51222). In a decidedly naturalistic idiom and with pronounced chiaroscuro, the painter devised a large composition with numerous figures depicting the well-known Old Testament passage from the Book of Tobit (Tobit 11:1-19). According to the sacred texts, the elderly Tobit had lost his sight after sparrow droppings fell into his eyes, and no doctor was able to cure him. Unable to work, he sent his son Tobias to recover a sum of money. During this journey, the Archangel Raphael appeared to him and instructed him to use the gall of a fish to heal his father's eyes. On his return, Tobias followed these instructions and Tobit miraculously recovered his sight. Measurements: 203 x 149 cm