The Master of the Annunciation to the Shepherds: Reconstructing a Painter without a Name

• In Event: Repositioning Art, Architecture, and Humanism in Renaissance Sicily and the Italian South II

Abstract

A longstanding mystery in the history of 17th-century Neapolitan art is the question of the identity of the painter known as the Master of the Annunciation to the Shepherds. Despite being one of the leading students of Jusepe de Ribera—perhaps the Valencia-born painter Juan Dò or the Neapolitan native Bartolomeo Passante—the documentary record on him is contradictory and incomplete. Thus scholarship on the artist has been almost exclusively concerned with debating the artist’s name. This paper attempts to move beyond this scholarly impasse by turning to the work itself, particularly the "Painter’s Studio" (Colección Masaveu, Madrid, ca. 1635–39), a remarkable self-portrait of the artist in the act of painting a still life. I argue that, when examined in conjunction with his other known works, the painting provides a means to reconstructing the artistic formation, intellectual development, and artistic persona of this mysterious figure.

Author

• Jesse Locker, Portland State University