CARAVAGGIO'S PAINTER OF THE 18TH CENTURY Salvator Mundi Oil on canvas, 132.5X98 cm Provenance: Private collection Depicting the three-quarter-length Salvator Mundi, the canvas can be dated with due caution to around 1615. The artist is thought to have been active in Rome, a participant in the Caravaggio current and of foreign origin. Although softened by the hieraticity imposed by the iconography, the image shows an energetic naturalism and interesting analogies with the manner of Giuseppe Ribera, perceptible in particular from the blessing hand whose impasto and draftsmanship are comparable with the Spanish artist's Roman production. In fact, the comparison with the protagonists of the Apostolate datable to the years 1607 ; 1609 is surprising for the similarity of the figures, the expressive tenor of the faces and the acerbity of the 'conception' (cf. G. Papi, in Il giovane Ribera tra Roma, Parma e Napoli 1608-1624, exhibition catalogue edited by M. and J. Portùs, Italian edition edited by N. Spinosa, Naples, Museo di Capodimonte, Naples 2011, pp. 100-101). Based on this assumption, the comparison with the Blessing Christ in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Nivillac is of particular interest, however, we can point to a different interpretation of the face, albeit very similar (cf. G. Kientz, in Ribera à Rome, autour du premier Apostolado, exhibition catalogue edited by G. Kazerouni and G. Kientz, Rennes 2014, pp. 92-93, no. 13), suggesting a possible date preceding the so-called 'Cussida Apostolate' (see G. Papi, Ancora sugli Apostoli Cussida di Ribera e qualche altra aggiunta al suo catalogo romano, in Bulletin de l'association des historiens de l'Art italien, 2010, 15-16, pp. 93-104; G. Papi, Ribera a Roma e la seconda generazione dei caravaggeschi, in Entro l'aria bruna d'una camera rinchiusa. Scritti su Caravaggio e l'ambiente caravaggesco, Naples 2016, pp. 96-112).