JACOPO CESTARO | THE MARRIAGE OF THE VIRGIN

Jacopo Cestaro trained in Naples together with Giuseppe Bonito, Gaspare Traversi and Domenico Mondo in the workshop of Francesco Solimena, the most illustrious interpreter of Neapolitan late-Baroque art. As an independent painter he executed large-scale work for important churches in Naples, including the church of the Gesù in Lecce, the church of the Assunta di Bagnoli Irpino and those of Sant'Efremo Vecchio and Saints Philip and James in Naples. Alongside these large commissions, his easel sized canvases are highly accomplished, as demonstrated by the present Marriage of the Virgin. This work is likely a presentation piece for an unknown, or perhaps unrealized altarpiece. We are grateful to Nicola Spinosa for suggesting the attribution to Cestaro, on the basis of photographs.