Gaspare Traversi

The canvas has been relined. The paint surface is secure, if a little thin in the darker areas, under a somewhat yellowed varnish. Inspection under UV light reveals some scattered retouchings most notable in the darker areas. Offered in a gilt wood and plaster frame in good condition.
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This modello for a lost or never-executed larger canvas was painted by Traversi in the years 1753-58 while resident in Rome. It manifests strong stylistic affinities with a set of canvases commissioned by Raffaello Rossi (or de Rossi) from Lugagnano who was the priest of the Order of the Francescani Minori Osservanti. Originally painted for the Church of Santa Maria di Monte Oliveto in Castell'Arquato this series of canvases is now dispersed with only two remaining in Castell'Arquato (Museo della Collegiata); two more are in the Cappella del Crocifisso, Parma cathedral, and others in the Chiesa di San Rocco in Borgo Val di Taro and the church of San Pietro d'Alcantara, Parma.¹ Traversi may even have used the same models for the present Adoration as he used for several of this series; compare, for example, the protagonists here with those of the Castell'Arquato Pietà.² Stylistically the painting may also be usefully compared to a Marriage of the Virgin, sold at auction in 1990 as 'French School, circa 1650' but identified by Prof. Nicola Spinosa as also belonging to Rossi's commission and thus datable to middle years of the 1750s.³

This painting will be published in January 2012 in an essay on Traversi in honour of Valentina Maderna currently being prepared by Prof. Nicola Spinosa.


1. See N. Spinosa, Gaspare Traversi. Napoletani del '700 tra miseria e nobilità, exhiibtion catalogue, Naples 2003-04, pp. 81-89, nos. 6a-6g, all reproduced.
2. Ibid., no. 6c, reproduced p. 87.
3. Sold Monaco, Christie's, 7 December 1990, lot 349; Ibid., p. 92, no. 8, reproduced p. 87.