Country villa with figures under a portico
Canvas
(old restorations)
116x166 inch
Bibliographie:
Nicola Spinosa, catalog of the Ritorno al Barocco Exhibition. Da Caravaggio a Vanvitelli, Naples 2009-2010, Electa, 2009.
Our canvas is characteristic of the fruitful collaboration between Viviano Codazzi for the architecture, the "perspectives", and Domenico Gargiulo for the figures. The first, trained in Rome in the entourage of the "Bamboccianti" and Agostino Tassi, stayed in Naples from 1634
to 1647 (he returned there punctually in 1653), then worked in Rome. He participated in the decoration of the Charterhouse of San Martino, also took part, with Aniello Falcone and his pupil Domenico Gargiulo, in the production of a series of four large canvases representing
scenes from ancient Rome for the Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid (now in the Prado Museum). He is the precursor of the vedutism of Canaletto and Belloto, and of the genre of "caprice".
Our painting can be dated to the early 1640s, by comparison with "Villa with rustic porch and baldachin with Solomonic columns" (Naples, Museum of Capodimonte,
exhibited at the Palais Royal) and the famous “Fête à la Villa de Poggioreale” at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Besançon, which feature the same clear definition of structures, planes of light and geometric chromatic tasks. The portico of the villa in the foreground,
surely an aristocratic country residence, with arches resting on mighty pillars, instead of the usual columns, is guarded by dogs carved in stone.
In the background, the eye discovers one of the many buildings typical of the Neapolitan hinterland, with wide open windows; on the edge of one of them were placed
two vases of flowering plants. To the right, the hills slope gently towards a river. The whole is animated, as in everyday reality, by the figures of a beggar, a family of humble peasants, by elegant nobles who discuss peacefully
under the porch.
A certificate from Professor Nicola Spinosa dated July 3, 2008 will be given to the purchaser.
Full Description