Aaron and the punishment of Korah

After his training with Luca Giordano (1634-1705), the Neapolitan master Nicola Malinconico developed a distinctive drawing style, characterized by broken outlines and a painterly use of brown and grey washes. Scavizzi (op. cit.) recognized this impressively large sheet as a typical work by the artist and connected it to a series of fourteen scenes from the Old Testament that Malinconico painted for Santa Maria Maggiore, Bergamo (1692-93). The ambitious composition can be identified through an old inscription as Aaron and the punishment of Korah: worshipped by the crowd at center, Aaron is the focus of this restless scene, animated by Maliconico with his characteristic fragmented pen style. It finds close comparisons with drawings of Biblical episodes like The Transport of the Ark of the Covenant in Washington D.C. (National Gallery of Art, inv. 2007.11.94) and The Crossing of the Red Sea in Verona (Collezione Banca Popolare; both discussed by Viviana Farina in L’idea del Barocco a Napoli: ‘Macchie’ e disegni di Luca Giordano, Francesco Solimena e Seguaci, 1670-1790, Cava dei Tirreni 2014, pp. 10-13 and no. 5).

We are grateful to Viviana Farina for confirming the attribution to Malinconico based on a digital image.