FRANCESCO DE MURA | Allegory of Summer or Allegory of Music;Allegory of Autumm

Salvatore e Francesco Romano, Palazzo Magnani Feroni, Florence;
Their sale, Florence, Sotheby's, 14 October 2009, lot 1177, for €60,000, where acquired (as Giuseppe Bonito).

The Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College, In the Light of Naples, the Art of Francesco de Mura, 17 September – 18 December 2016, nos 39 and 40 (as De Mura).

A. Blumenthal, In the Light of Naples, the Art of Francesco de Mura, exh. cat., Cornell 2016, pp. 185–88, cat. nos 39 and 40 (as De Mura).  

These two allegories, from circa 1770, must have formed part of a series of the four seasons. A much smaller pair of almost identical allegories is also known. Both of the latter works are signed by De Mura on the reverse, while Summer also has an inscription which identifies the man as Agnellus Nobilone. The Nobilone family were a well-known family from Sorrento.  Another version of the Allegory of Summer is in the Santangelo collection and was formerly given to Giuseppe Bonito.¹ The attribution has been endorsed by Professor Nicola Spinosa.

1 N. Spinosa, Pittura napoletana del Settecento, vol. I, Dal barocco al rococò, Naples, 1993, p. 168, cat. no. 287.