Nuove indagini sulla Madonna con il Bambino tra i ss. Francesco, Giovanni Battista, Girolamo e Antonio da Padova commissionata da Gabriele Mastrilli

This article focuses on the canvas with The Virgin and Child between Sts. Francis, John the Baptist, Jerome and Anthony of Padua (Capua, Museo Campano), recently attributed to the painter Antonello da Capua. Based on stylistic comparisons, the author places it at least three decades after the year “MCCCCIL” inscribed in the painting, that is, not long prior to the death of the patron, the Nolan Gabriele Mastrillis (1491). The latter's portrait was originally at the feet of the Virgin, as now revealed by infrared reflectography. Moreover, the author suggests that the elevated position of the building and the mountain landscape in the background of the composition were meant to evoke the very church for which the painting was intended, located on the hill of Cicala, near Nola. If so, the building may have been inspired by the model of the Neapolitan temple of the Dioscuri, the most emblematic of Naples' ancient monuments.