Cesare Fracanzano, “Two Wrestlers”, 1637, Oil on Canvas, 156 x 128 cm, Museo del Prado

Born in Bisceglie, Apulia in 1605, Cesare Fracanzano was a Mannerist painter who flourished in the seventeenth century. His father, Alessandro Fracanzano, was a nobleman originally from Verona and a late-Mannerist painter. Cesare Fracanzano and his younger brother Francesco learned the art trade from their father; however, they attributed little importance to their father’s style. In 1622, the brothers moved to Naples to study and work.

Cesare Fracanzano returned to the Apulia region in 1626, producing works for the churches and palaces of the nobility. In the period around 1630, he entered the Naples studio of Spanish painter Jusepe de Ribera, a proponent of an especially pronounced chiaroscuro technique which added drama to a work by creating a spotlight effect. Fracanzano’s pictorial style was based on Ribera’s teachings; however, he was also influenced by the boldness and dramatic brushwork of Tintoretto and the more classical Baroque styles of the Carracci brothers and Guido Reni of the Mannerist school.

Fracanzano married Beatrice Covelli, of whom little information is known, and settled in Barletta, the main town of Apulia, in south eastern Italy. Their union produced one son, Michelangelo, who was also a painter. After the death of his wife, it is known that he married a model who had posed for several of his works. Cesare Fracanzano died in 1651.

Fracanzano executed many works in his hometown, and only journeyed from town to fulfill commitments for work in Naples, Rome and other cities in Apulia. Works attributed to him include: “Saint John the Baptist”, 1635-40, at the National Museum of Caposimonte in Naples; “Drunken Silenus”, 1630-35, at the Museo del Prado; “Saint Jude Thaddeus” painted circa 1630 and showing the influence of his mentor, the painter Ribera; and the “Immaculate Conception with St. Joseph and St. Nicholas” at the Church of Sant Antonio de Padri Barletta in Apulia.

Cesare Fracanzano’s 1637  “Two Wrestlers” belongs to a group of paintings entitled “History of Rome” which was commissioned for Madrid’s Buen Retiro Palace, a large palace complex built on the orders of Philip IV of Spain and designed for the leisure of the monarchy . Dedicated to depictions of Roman public pastimes, the group includes athletes, gladiators, animal fights, and mock sea battles. As the buildings of the palace complex are no longer extant, the painting is in the collection of Madrid’s Museo del Prado.

Insert Image: Cesare Fracanzano, “Saint Jude Thaddeus”, circa 1630, Oil on Canvas, 91.5 x 79.3 cm, Private Collection