Incredulity of St. Thomas, 17th century

Repaired crack on the slab.

The work is an oil on marble slab originally applied to a wall. The compositional structure is based on Guercino's Incredulity of Saint Thomas, now housed in the National Gallery in London (which in turn was derived from Caravaggio's famous prototype); however, the reference model for our anonymous Italian painter was, more likely, the engraving of the painting made by Giovanni Battista Pasqualini in 1621. This is mainly deduced from the simplification of the group of figures on the right and the light background on which the scene is constructed. The painting's Venetian-style colors also characterize it, indicating its chronological context, linking the work to the "Neo-Venetian" movement that spread through Rome during the 17th century.