Giuseppe Bonito

Anonymous sale, Milan, Sotheby's 2 December 2003, lot 79 (as Paolo de Matteis);

Robert M. Edsel (b. 1956), USA;

By whom sold ('Property from the collection of Robert M. Edsel'), Sotheby's, London, 9 July 2015, lot 165;

Where acquired by the present owner.

This beautiful Immaculate Conception was identified by Prof. Nicola Spinosa as the work of Giuseppe Bonito, one of the most influential artists in Naples in the second half of the seventeenth century. Bonito's style of painting was rooted in the Neapolitan tradition, with its rich palette and chiaroscuro effects but also incorporated influences from Rome, such as that of his contemporary, Pompeo Batoni.

Prof. Spinosa compares this canvas with a painting of the same subject, painted for a chapel in the Palazzo Reale, Caserta, where it remains today.¹ The Caserta canvas is the latest recorded painting of the artist's career, completed in 1789.

We are grateful to Prof. Spinosa for suggesting the attribution upon first-hand inspection.

¹ N. Spinosa, Pittura napoletana del Settecento, Naples 1986, p. 171, no. 306, reproduced p. 376, fig. 373.