Alle origini del naturalismo meridionale. Un contributo per Loys Croys e gli esordi di Carlo Sellitto

At the origins of naturalism in Southern Italy. A contribution for Loys Croys and the debut of Carlo Sellitto



Thanks to the discovery of a legal deed dated 1601, it has been possible to attribute an impressive, and until now anonymous, altarpiece to Loys Croys. This elusive artist was one of the principal personalities in the colony of Flemish artists that had settled in Naples between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The altarpeiece depicts The Last Supper and is housed in the Church of Santa Maria Assunta in Albano di Lucania, province of Potenza. The work has a robust naturalism to it and incorporates the typology and stylistic motifs that will then be picked up by two of Croys better known pupils, the Caravaggesque Carlo Sel­litto and Filippo Vitale. The former is referred to in the document as a witness. The artistic language of the piece, with a strong Nordic accent, is here at its clearest.