Drawing allegedly by Pietro Novelli, the "Monrealese" (Monreale Palermo 1603-1647) depicting Saint Jerome ...

Drawing allegedly by Pietro Novelli, the "Monrealese" (Monreale Palermo 1603-1647) depicting Saint Jerome translated the Holy Scriptures. Watercolor on paper, brown ink. Mm 209x260.                                    "Pietro Novelli, the Monrealese, was one of the greatest exponents of baroque painting of the seventeenth century Palermo. He trained at his father’s workshop and between 1622 and 1625 was active in Rome, studying the major painters of the Renaissance. In 1630 is documented his presence in Naples, where he had the opportunity to admire works of Jusepe de Ribera and the Neapolitan naturalist painters. In Palermo, it will be strongly influenced by the paintings of the Genoese school present in the Oratory of Santo Stefano Protomartire al Monte di Pietà and the Adoration of the Shepherds of Caravaggio at the Oratory of San Lorenzo.Other suggestions come from the Flemish painter Antoon van Dyck, who stayed in Palermo in 1624.
The sketch in question depicts St Jerome translating the Sacred Scriptures, immersed in a wooded landscape. The muscular figure of the saint, the draperies, as well as its posing, recall the work painted by Monrealese, representing the Resurrection of Christ, kept at the Prado Museum in Madrid." ASOR STUDIO