GIULIO CARPIONI (Venice, 1613 - Vicenza, 1678) The Universal Flood Oil on canvas, 48X66 cm Provenance: Rome, Tito Gobbi Collection The painting is an interesting addition to the catalogue of Giulio Carpioni, one of the most singular artists of the Baroque age, active between Venice and Vicenza. His catalogue includes genre scenes and religious subjects, but his most famous compositions are those with mythological and biblical subjects. Trained with Padovanino and looking to the classicism of the 16th-century lagoon tradition, the artist was confronted with the tenebrism of Ruschi, the Caravaggismo interpreted by Nicolas Régnier and Carlo Saraceni, but also with the Veronese experiences of Turchi, Bassetti and Ottino, without neglecting the suggestions of Roman ascendancy spread by Poussin and Pietro Testa. It was in fact Roberto Longhi (cf. R. Longhi, in Paragone, 1963, no. 157, p. 78) who hypothesised a study trip to the capital, but the painter's presence in Vicenza from 1638 onwards is certain. The decision to leave Venice in fact proved to be a reasoned choice, to which we must add that after the departure of Francesco Maffei in 1657, the artist saw his commitments multiply, thus being able to control and direct the city's artistic policy without hindrance. Indeed, the main ecclesiastical commissions and, thanks to the research conducted by Flavia Casagranda, the discovery of works in local parishes date back to these years. Returning to the canvas under examination, we perceive in it the typical taste of the artist, who favoured lucidly understood forms, calibrated in the still light and the formal rigour of the drawing that delineates chiaroscuro passages. These clues of style, as well as the autography, suggest a dating in which Carpioni is still influenced by the lagoon tenebrism, albeit mediated by the chiarismo of Padovanino and the Arcadian sentiments of Titianesque ancestry. Reference bibliography: R. Longhi, Note al margine al catalogo della mostra Sei-Settecentesca del 1922, in Opere complete di Roberto Longhi, Scritti Giovanili, Florence 1956, p. 499 G. M. Pilo, Carpioni, Venice 1961, ad vocem F. Casagranda, Per Giulio Carpioni: un percorso nell'attività religiosa, in Pittura veneziana dal Quattrocento al Settecento. Studi di storia dell'arte in onore di Egidio Martini, edited by G. Maria Pilo, Venice 1999, pp. 125-129