(Vienna 1649–1705 Turin) The ectasy of St. Theresa, oil on canvas, 63 x 50.5 cm, framed,

We are grateful to Professor Giancarlo Sestieri, Rome, who has confirmed this painting as an autograph work by Seiter (certificate of December 2009). This painting identifies a further element in the oeuvre of this Austrian-Italian master of the Baroque. Born in Vienna, Seiter trained at first in Venice and became a reputable artist in Rome. Eventually he would become a highly esteemed court painter in Turin. In his ceiling paintings for the Palazzo Reale in Turin he would develop a completely individual synthesis of the Baroque and classicising tendencies drawn from Roman Baroque painting and the Venetian coloristic tradition. This fusion is evident in the present painting. The colour is freely, quickly and expertly applied and the scene is dominated by the powerful colours of the ground, whilst the elegance of the composition makes evident the influence of Carracci. Sestieri, who makes reference in his certificate to these markers of his mature style, thus dates the painting to the last phase of Seiter's oeuvre, when he was already active at the Sardinian court in Turin.