St. Cecília and two musician angels

Antiveduto Grammatica was one of the painters established in Rome who tried to follow the innovative principles of the style of Caravaggio, although only in its more formal elements. Grammatica maintains, however, a strong idealisation of his figures’ faces and an affected construction of the poses with delicate gestures, reserving naturalism for the detailed representation of the musical instruments. In the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna there is another version of this painting, with noticeable variations in the objects, but with a very similar composition. The painting was bought from a private collection in Lisbon, by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, in 1865, without knowledge of its remote provenance.