Vaccaro is widely recognised as one of the most tenacious second-generation followers of Caravaggio. From the late 1630s to the early 1650s, he played a prominent role in the Neapolitan current of devotional painting, distinguished above all for his intensely affective portrayals of St Mary Magdalene in her penitential guise. St Mary Magdalene was among Vaccaro’s most recurrent subjects, and versions of this theme—marked by a striking blend of sensuality and piety—were produced in astonishing quantities, often rendering individual attributions difficult. While several extant examples—some signed, others workshop variants—are of uneven quality, the painting in Prague displays a level of painterly refinement, psychological nuance, and control over chiaroscuro that suggests either direct authorship or close supervision by Vaccaro himself.
The reasons for the multiplication of Magdalene images are embedded in the spiritual and economic realities of seventeenth-century Naples. Following the example of Caravaggio—whose influence saturated Neapolitan visual culture after his flight to the city in 1606—Vaccaro absorbed the Caravaggesque vocabulary of dramatic tenebrism and lifelike, emotionally direct figures. However, whereas Caravaggio’s own Penitent Magdalene was marked by raw naturalism and austere melancholy, Vaccaro softened the psychological register. His St Mary Magdalenes, typically shown half-length, eyes uplifted or closed in rapture, with bare shoulders and flowing hair, exemplify a more decorous eroticism. She functioned as a model of contrition and divine mercy, yet her sensual presentation sustained the attention of a clientele drawn as much to visual pleasure as to moral instruction.
Scholarship suggests that Vaccaro began developing this Magdalene type in the 1630s, consolidating it into a signature product by the 1640s. Unlike elite altarpieces or civic commissions, these half-length devotional works were likely painted for the open market, many destined for export beyond Naples.