Essays and documents for the history of art 1994 - 1995. Writtings in memory of Raffaello Causa”,1996, p. 77; N. Spinosa (curated byi), Ritorno al barocco - from Caravaggio a Vanvitelli, Napoli, 2009, p. 223. tight analogy with the Salomé that Caravaggio painted the second time he stayed in Naples (1609-1610) which is today at the National Gallery in London. Both the compositional gesture and the made painting appear to be very similar, both the head of Oloferne, one citation, almost identical of Battista del Merisi- and the sad face of the old lady. On the other hand, at the beginning of his career, the painter aproached thecaravagesc naturalism,painting the copy of the Flagellazione di San Domenico Maggiore and, trying to challenge his own skills, chose the work of the famous Lombard artist as essential model of his first experiences in painting. The canvas presented here, represents a testimony of his adhesion to caravagism, but at the same time it seems not very far from other sources of inspiration, that took him, by relationships and exchanges almost to the same level of Artemisia Gentileschi and Massimo Stanzione and Bernardo Cavallino young experimentation. Artemisia – who more than once approached the biblical theme of Manasse' rich and gracious widow, who saved the city of Betulia from the attack of General Oloferne, killing him after the banquet – Vaccaro shares some iconographic and formal solutions, as for example the use of the image of the woman with flourishing physical form and with large clothes, which seems to confirm in the painter's exemplar at the Museo di Capodimonte; but he does not own her same violent passion, because his Giuditta has a facial expression, with the face full of tiny light modulations, almost gentle and calm, as if the biblical heroine was unrelated to the dramatic event that just happened and of which she was the protagonist. These characteristics, that distinguish Vaccaro's young style are, effectively, mediated by Emilian classicism and of Guido Reni's style in particular; one school, the one of the Emilians, which,from the fourth decade of the century, will be in favor of a new phase of the course of the figurative culture in Naples, investing an entire generation of Neapolitan painters, among who, authoritative figures, Massimo Stanzione and Bernardo Cavallino. Regarding the time of making the canvas of Milanese collection can be dated on the range of the third-ties of the century
Flavia Petrelli


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