Neapolitan school, 18th century Pair of Saints (2) Oil on canvas, 33 x 26 cm With frame, 51 x 33 cm The two ovals within gilded and carved frames with floral and phytomorphic motifs depict two saints in half-figure against a neutral background in gray tones but illuminated by a warm light, inherent to the divine and holiness. The first is Saint Philip Neri, who is not represented with all his attributes, such as the book or the lily, but whose identity can be recognized thanks to the gilded chasuble, a vestment with which he is usually depicted, although the typical color is red. This sacred garment could be made with different shapes and materials, but the one usually used by the saint was so appreciated that it became a model in itself; this was therefore also linked to the sacred image of Philip Neri, whose identity can be reconstructed in this case also thanks to the ecstatic gaze turned upwards, from which come the heads of two cherubs that partially suggest the vision of the Madonna with the Child, figures that were accompanied and supported by angels and putti within clouds and luminous rays in artistic depictions, such as that of the Vision of Saint Philip Neri by Guido Reni. As for the other oval, it represents Saint Anthony of Padua, depicted as a young friar with the habit and the Child Jesus in his arms, a representation linked to his vision of the Madonna and the infant Jesus shortly before his death. Belonging to the Franciscan Order and of Lusitanian origin, he personally met Saint Francis and dedicated himself to spreading the true doctrine, traveling extensively but leaving in Padua the most relevant traces of his evangelical and theological activity. The link between these two figures, in addition to holiness, perhaps lies in the fact that both are depicted in the moment in which they are having direct contact with the divine through the vision of the Madonna or the Child. As for the period of execution of these two ex votos, therefore reserved for private devotion, the oval shape of the canvas and the delicate pictorial rendering, luminous and light, suggest a placement in the 18th century. From a geographical point of view, it is possible to find a correspondence in the Neapolitan production of the first decades of the eighteenth century, in which the examples of Luca Giordano still influence, considering the coexistence of different instances coming from multiple schools and artists with whom Giordano and more generally the Neapolitan artistic movement came into contact during the seventeenth century. In this case we notice to a greater extent a certain classicism, flat and measured, borrowed from the classicist examples of Guido Reni, Poussin and Maratta.