Neapolitan School, 17th Century, The Wine Trade

This striking genre painting, executed in the naturalistic and dramatically lit style of the 17th-century Neapolitan school, captures a moment of rustic intimacy within a nocturnal setting. An elderly woman, wearing a white headscarf, turns to the left as if having just completed a wine transaction with a bearded man beside her. He clasps a wicker-covered bottle of Chianti with his robust right hand, while two more bottles rest in a wooden cart in the background.
A third, partially obscured male face appears between them in the shadows, enhancing the layered composition and narrative tension. The scene is painted in the Caravaggesque manner, with focused illumination falling on the woman’s profile and the man’s hand and cheek, contrasting powerfully with the surrounding darkness.
Typical of the Neapolitan followers of Caravaggio — such as Battistello Caracciolo or Jusepe de Ribera — this work emphasizes dramatic realism,

strong character presence, and an unvarnished view of everyday life. It exemplifies the intense emotional atmosphere and tenebrist lighting that defined Neapolitan Baroque painting in the early 1600s.