Pietro Fabris

Anonymous sale, Antwerp, Campo and Campo, 5 December 2000, lot 148.

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: This painting has a fairly recent lining and older stretcher, with a quite recent restoration as well. There does not appear to be any accidental damage. The rich brushwork of the foreground figures is beautifully preserved in general, with one or two evident retouchings such as in the face of the woman holding a basket and leading a small child at centre left. Others have slight strengthenings along the outlines of figures such as the group at centre right and the men playing cards in the lower right corner. But almost always the foreground figures have remained finely preserved, a particularly perfect example being the lovely lady in white in the centre. The middle distance was clearly lightly painted and has suffered quite widespread wear, leaving the further hills and figures on the left in particular rather faint. The middle distance in general is rather thin even in the architecture, with some light strengthening in areas such as the stairs of the castle on the right with the darker arched hollow beneath the stair also needing reinforcing touches. There are a few minor scattered touches in the upper right sky visible under ultra violet light, with other retouching, sometimes older, in the clouds and lower sky on the left. Nevertheless the vividness of the brushwork maintains the overall luminosity and exuberance of the painting. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
"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."

This magnificent work, amongst Fabris' largest canvases, shows the artist at his best. Though it is not dated, the dimensions and quality suggest that it was executed when the artist was at his full maturity during the 1770s. Similar paintings from this period include the Festival of the Madonna dell'Arco dated 1777 which was sold New York, Sotheby's, 23 January 2003, lot 112. Though still a small fishing village during the eighteenth century, the expansion of Naples meant that Mergellina was gradually absorbed and is now part of the city itself.

A smaller and unsigned version of the composition (54 by 85 cm) was exhibited with its pendant at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh in 1988.¹

Despite the significant role Pietro Fabris played in the development of eighteenth-century Neapolitan landscape painting, we know very little about his early life. Although his work focused so closely on capturing the quintessence of Neapolitan everyday life, Fabris describes himself as "Inglese" in the dedication to his Raccolta di varii Vestimenti ed Arti Del Regno of 1773, and is similarly referred to in the introduction to Sir William Hamilton's, Campi Phlaegrei, a study of volcanoes which Fabris illustrated. Other circumstantial evidence which points to his possible English origins is his continued connection with London, exhibiting at the Free Society of Artists in 1768 and the Society of Artists in 1772. Perhaps it was this English connection which made him so popular with the English Grand Tourists whose southernmost stop was often in Naples or perhaps, it was in homage to his English patrons that he went to such lengths to encourage his links with England.





1. See R. Middione and B. Daprà, Reality and Imagination in Neapolitan Painting of the 17th to the 19th Centuries, Edinburgh 1988, p. 27, cat. no. 28, reproduced.