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| Massimo Stanzione Sacrifice to Bacchus ca. 1634 oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| Massimo Stanzione Judith with the Head of Holofernes 1640 oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Massimo Stanzione The Birth of John the Baptist announced to Zacharias ca. 1635 oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| Massimo Stanzione John the Baptist taking leave of his Family ca. 1635 oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| Massimo Stanzione Beheading of John the Baptist ca. 1635 oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid |
"Although Neapolitan artists stuck tenaciously to the various facets of Caravaggism – epitomized by the names of Battistello Caracciolo, Jusepe de Ribera, and Artemisia Gentileschi – the swing towards Bolognese classicism from the mid 1630s on is a general phenomenon. . . . The most important caposcuola of the mid century, Massimo Stanzione (1586-1656) turned in a similar direction. His early development is still unclear, but his Caravaggism is allied to that of Simon Vouet, Carlo Saraceni, and Artemisia rather than to that of Caracciolo and Ribera. In his best works, belonging to the decade 1635-45, he displays a distinct sense for subtle chromatic values, melodious lines, gracefully built figures, and mellow and lyrical expressions. Stanzione was famed as the 'Neapolitan Guido Reni'. . . . He mediates between the art of the older generation and that of his pupil Bernardo Cavallino."
– 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
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| Massimo Stanzione Adoration of the Magi before 1656 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Massimo Stanzione Lot and his Daughters before 1656 oil on canvas Galleria Nazionale di Cosenza |
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| Massimo Stanzione Bathsheba Bathing ca. 1620-30 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Massimo Stanzione Sacrifice of Moses ca. 1628-30 oil on canvas Museo di Capodimonte, Naples |
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| Massimo Stanzione Massacre of the Innocents ca. 1625-50 oil on canvas Schloss Rohrau, Austria |
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| Massimo Stanzione Penitent Magdalen before 1656 oil on canvas Museo Nazionale d'Arte, Matera |
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| Massimo Stanzione Woman in Neapolitan Costume ca. 1635 oil on canvas Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco |
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| Massimo Stanzione St Agnes ca. 1635-40 oil on canvas Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona |
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| Massimo Stanzione Cleopatra ca. 1630-50 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Paintings at the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg generally retain the old-school European brown-gravy look that prevailed in most western museums up through World War I. Centuries of dirty varnish counted as "patina" and were regarded as inextricable from Old Master status. Nowadays in America, in Britain, Germany and Italy such varnishes tend to be routinely stripped off as thoroughly as possible. In France, Spain and Russia identical layers of old varnish are – to varying degrees – respected and preserved. The French in particular argue that top layers of glazes applied by artists to classical oil paintings are of such inherent fragility that they demand a protective varnish coating, and that a conservator who attempts to strip the painting back to its "original appearance" runs too great a risk of taking some of the actual painting off along with the varnish. Certainly the fragile glazes that finished off Stanzone's Cleopatra [directly above] can be supposed to be safe under their heavy dark varnish. Safe, but no longer visible.
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| Massimo Stanzione Apollo and Daphne before 1656 drawing Morgan Library, New York |