 |
| Bernardo Cavallino Drunkenness of Noah ca. 1640-45 oil on panel Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
 |
| Bernardo Cavallino Lot and his Daughters ca. 1640-45 oil on panel Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
 |
| Bernardo Cavallino Lot and his Daughters ca. 1644-45 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
 |
| Bernardo Cavallino The Flagellation before 1656 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
"Bernardo Cavallino melded a strikingly original individuality from a variety of sources – Spanish, French, Netherlandish, and native Italian – transforming them so completely that it is impossible to know who actually influenced him. Despite his easily recognized individual style, little is known about Cavallino himself. Born in Naples, he probably died there during the plague of 1656. He worked for art dealers and private patrons whose records no longer exist. Only eight signed or initialed paintings are extant; four drawings have been attributed to him. During his lifetime his pictures may have been sold outside Naples, often under other artists' names. Cavallino specialized in relatively small paintings of saints and subjects from the Old Testament, New Testament, and Roman mythology, on canvas and copper. He was probably trained in Naples, in an academic tradition emphasizing figure drawing, architecture, perspective, and literary sources. His paintings can be theatrical, with subtle, intense coloring; a naturalistic rendering of surfaces; mannered elegance and grace; and an emotional tenderness unparalleled in his Neapolitan peers."
– from curator's notes at the Getty Museum
 |
| Bernardo Cavallino The Shade of Samuel invoked by Saul ca. 1650-56 oil on copper Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
"Bernardo Cavallino depicts an episode from the Bible in which King Saul, about to enter battle with the Philistines, asked the Witch of Endor to summon the spirit of the recently deceased prophet Samuel, the last Judge of the Israelites. Silhouetted against a bright light emanating from a nearby doorway, Samuel's skin appears suitably ashen and gray. He engages the kneeling king with a penetrating stare, and delivers news that the next day the Philistines will defeat Israel and that Saul and his sons will die in battle. . . . This painting is said to be one of a group of four copper panels which were perhaps commissioned for a single recipient, which includes Cavallino's Mucius Scaevola confronting King Porsenna in the Kimbell Museum, Fort Worth."
– from curator's notes at the Getty Museum
 |
| Bernardo Cavallino Mucius Scaevola confronting King Porsenna ca. 1650 oil on copper Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas |
 |
| Bernardo Cavallino St Cecilia ca. 1645 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
"Cavallino painted about twenty single-figure religious and allegorical 'portraits.' Music was a favorite subject: five of these works depict musicians, including three of Cecilia, their patron saint. In the Boston picture, Cavallino's clever depiction of Cecilia's crimson gown unfurling into the background provides a lyrical, visual interpretation of the tune ushering forth from her violin."
– from curator's notes at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
 |
| Bernardo Cavallino St Cecilia in Ecstasy ca. 1640 oil on canvas Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan |
 |
| Bernardo Cavallino Vision of St Dominic ca. 1640-45 oil on canvas National Gallery of Canada |
 |
| Bernardo Cavallino Martyrdom of St Stephen ca. 1645 oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid |
 |
| Bernardo Cavallino Three Standing Saints before 1656 oil on panel private collection |
 |
| Bernardo Cavallino Immaculate Conception 1647 oil on canvas Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan |
"A Caravaggista strongly influenced by Artemisia Gentileschi, Cavallino gave his best in cabinet pictures. His work is in a category of its own; a great colourist, his tenderness, elegance, gracefulness, and delicacy are without parallel at this moment."
– Rudolf Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy 1600-1750, originally published in 1958, revised by Joseph Connors and Jennifer Montagu and reissued by Yale University Press in 1999
 |
| Bernardo Cavallino Judith with the Head of Holofernes ca. 1650-55 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
 |
| Bernardo Cavallino Hercules and Omphale ca. 1640 oil on canvas National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo |
 |
| Bernardo Cavallino Pietà ca. 1649 oil on canvas Museo Diocesano di Malfetta |