Pietro Fabris

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This dramatic painting has recently been restored. The canvas has been lined and the paint layer is stable. The surface has been cleaned, varnished and retouched. The retouches are fairly extensive in places but have been beautifully handled and the picture overall has a beautiful appearance. Under ultraviolet light the retouches are visible in the darker colors of the foreground to strengthen some of the figures and reduce some of the abrasion. In the distant town on the right some strengthening has occurred to lend a little more information to the figures and buildings, and in the sky there are various dots and restorations addressing abrasion and cracking. The restoration is fairly extensive in places but has been very well applied and the picture should be hung as is.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Despite his considerable output of paintings depicting Neapolitan landscapes and scenes of daily life, as well as prints and drawings of costume, topographical and geological studies, Pietro Fabris remains a somewhat elusive figure. His initial training is unknown, but works by him are dated as early as the mid-1750's¹. From early in his career he occasionally signed himself as an "English" artist, and he even exhibited works in London at the Free Society and the Society of Artists (1768 and 1772), although his style and subject matter remained resolutely Neapolitan. Despite this, it is still unclear if in fact his heritage was indeed British, or simply that most of his patrons and artistic associates were.

Fabris' colorful palette and lively compositions, most often celebrations of the daily life of the city and its surroundings, had obvious appeal to the grand tourists who visited Naples.  In addition to this more typical fare, however, the artist also produced a few depictions of Vesuvius erupting.  Images of the volcano smoking and belching fire had almost become a separate genre of painting, and had a pan-European appeal deriving from a newly revived fascination in the natural sciences.  Fabris, in fact, would do a lot to foster interest in geology with his detailed and prolific illustrations for the Campi phlegraei (1776), a vulcanological study of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, at the request of his great patron Sir William Hamilton, the British ambassador at Naples.  The volumes included almost sixty prints, which the artist produced "with the utmost fidelity."²   The catalogue of the auction of Sir William's collection in London in 1801 included five canvases by Fabris depicting eruptions of Vesuvius.

One of the most violent and prolonged of Vesuvius' periodic outbursts was that of the Summer/Fall 1767.  With a more minor flare up in the spring of that year, the mountain became increasingly more active until the end of the summer and early fall, when lava began to collect in the crater and finally began to flow down its side.  To an enthusiast like Sir William, it was an exciting event; in a letter he noted that "it [was] impossible to describe the glorious sight of a river of liquid fire, nor the effect of thousands of red-hot stones thrown up at least two hundred yards high and rolling down the side of the mountain."  It also provided a compelling subject for a number of artists, including Fabris who painted it a number of times.  For the common people of the Neapolitan countryside, however, it was more unsettling occurrence, as is suggested in the present canvas.  Fabris depicts the Ponte della Maddalena, a long bridge which spans the Sebeto River on the outskirts of Naples towards Portici (which can be seen at the foot of Vesuvius in the distance).   At the right on the canvas can be seen some frightened peasant women with their children, one of whom who holds up a painting (presumably of the Virgin or a patron saint) towards the erupting mountain.  At the left, around an edicola (a sort of small roadside chapel) dedicated to San Giovanni Nepomuceno may be seen gathered another group, praying for relief.  Other of their fellow citizens seem to be more sanguine, although most appear to be heading away from the lava that is streaming down towards the city.  The appearance of just one chapel on the bridge allows a dating for the picture to 1767, as another one dedicated to the patron of Naples, San Gennaro, was added afterwards.  In addition, the only eruption with lava flow in this direction was that of 1767.

We are grateful to Drs. Emilie Beck-Saiello and Fabrice Bonasso, for confirming that attribution to Fabris.  Dr. Beck-Saiello will publish the present work in her monograph of the works of Volaire (forthcoming 2009) as a "raro, bellissimo ed importante esempio dell'arte di Pietro Fabris."

1.  Two of a set of four canvases with figures dancing and making merry are dated on the reverse 1756 and 1757, see All'Ombra di Vesuvio, Naples, 1990, p. 383, reproduced p. 231.  A mention of a painting depicting a nocturnal eruption, like the present canvas, is noted in a 1824 sale at Christie's London, which from the description is said to be dated 1749, although it is unclear if this in fact an actual date, or an inscription, or indeed a misreading. 

2.  see J. Ingamells, A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy 1701-1800, New Haven and London 1997, p. 455.