Francesco Guarino

Francesco Guarino or Guarini (19 January 1611 – 23 November 1651) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in the mountainous area east of Naples called Irpinia, and in other areas of the Kingdom of Naples, chiefly Campania, Apulia, and Molise.

Biography

Francesco Guarino was born in Sant'Andrea Apostolo, today a frazione of Solofra in the Province of Avellino, Campania, and died in Gravina in Puglia. He was a pupil first locally of his father, Giovanni Tommaso Guarino, before moving to Naples to work in the studio of Massimo Stanzione. In Naples, like many of his contemporaries there, he was influenced by the style of Caravaggio. In his selection of models who appear to have been plucked from the streets of Naples, he recalls the style of Bernardo Cavallino, the fellow-pupil of Stanzione.

Between c. 1630 and 1635 he painted his first important works, a series of canvases for the ceiling of the Collegiata di San Michele Arcangelo, Solofra. The earliest are the Agony in the Garden (in collaboration with his father), the Liberation of St. Peter, a highly individual response to Caravaggio, Joseph’s Dream and Joseph Warned by the Angel. In the same church the more richly composed Christ among the Doctors and Circumcision, distinguished by the weightier realism of the figures, reveal the influence of Jusepe de Ribera and Francesco Fracanzano.

A little later, in the damaged Annunciation to the Shepherds, also in San Michele, the grave naturalism of the humble figures suggests the impact of Velázquez, who had been working in Italy between 1629 and 1631.