BERNARDO STROZZI (Genoa, 1581 - Venice, 1644) Saint Catherine of Siena (c. 1625) Oil on canvas, 70X67.5 cm Provenance: Genoa, private collection Bibliography: M. Bonzi, 1953, n.1-2 L. Mortari, Bernardo Strozzi, Rome 1966, p. 111, fig. 51 L. Mortari, Bernardo Strozzi, Rome 1995, p. 96, no. 61 C. Manzitti, Bernardo Strozzi, Turin 2013, p. 137, no. 145 Dated by Camillo Manzitti to 1625, the work proves to be an appreciable proof of his maturity, in which the author proves to be one of the most innovative figures in early 17th century Italian painting. Trained with the Tuscan Pietro Sorri and looking to the chromatic examples of Cambiaso, his art was influenced by the Milanese artists Cerano, Morazzone and Giulio Cesare Procaccini, but it was the chromatic lesson of Pietro Paolo Rubens that determined his style, exuberant and mellow, without neglecting the Caravaggio-like suggestions that marked his naturalistic nature. It was during the third decade that Strozzi enriched his palette, so that the narrative layout also acquired an unprecedented scenic breadth. Also typical are the flowing, full-bodied brushstrokes that alternate with absolute clarity on the surface and find analogies with the artist's autograph works when the drafts and shifts of the late manner gave way to a pictorial freedom of extraordinary Baroque evidence. Reference bibliography: F. R. Pesenti, Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Spinola. L'officina di Bernardo Strozzi, Quaderno della Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici della Liguria, 3, Genoa 1981, pp. 57-62 F. R. Pesenti, Bernardo Strozzi, in La pittura in Liguria. Artisti del primo Seicento, Genoa 1986, pp. 9-32 Bernardo Strozzi 1582 ; 1644, exhibition catalogue edited by A. Orlando and D. Sanguineti, Genoa 2019, ad vocem L. Borean, Bernardo Strozzi a Venezia tra mestiere, collezionismo e mercato nel Sei e Settecento, in Bernardo Strozzi 1582 ; 1644, exhibition catalogue edited by A. Orlando and D. Sanguineti, Genoa 2019, pp. 325-331 Bernardo Strozzi 1582-1644, exhibition catalogue edited by A. Orlando and D. Sanguineti, Genoa 2019, ad vocem