PIETRO ANTONIANI
(Milan c. 1740/50 - 1805)
A Panoramic View of Naples from the Bay of Naples
Signed on the reverse of the (unlined) canvas 'Pietro Antoniani Milanese' and inscribed with the subject
Oil on canvas
50.2 x 130.2 cm
Provenance:
Painted for Francis Godolphin Osborne, Marquess of Carmarthen, later 5th Duke of Leeds (1751-1799), and by descent to
John Osborne, 11th Duke of Leeds (1901-1963); his sale, Sotheby's, London,
14 June 1961, lot 3, as Antonio Joli (£500 to Kauffman).
With Herbert Bier, from whom acquired by the late owner in c. 1962 for £700.
Literature:
Historical and Descriptive Catalogue of Pictures belonging to his Grace the Duke of Leeds, London, 1902, p. 9, no. 1.
The Marquess of Carmarthen, son of Thomas Osborne, 4th Duke of Leeds (1713-1789) and himself later 5th Duke of Leeds, was in Naples May - October 1770,1 and in June 1773 Sir William Hamilton told his nephew that 'Lord Carmarthen's pictures are with the painter Antoniani, waiting for his lordship's instructions'.2 This establishes this painting among the very few Neapolitan view paintings of the eighteenth century recorded in contemporary documentation. The Dukes of Leeds also owned a pair of large views of Naples similarly given to Joli in the 1961 sale, 'a general view from the South looking towards S. Martino with the Castel dell'Ovo to the left and a general view from the North towards Vesuvius, 25 ½ x 51 ¾ in.3
1. State Papers Foreign, Public Records Office, 105/320, f. 120 (Hamilton, 12 June 1770). Add. 41197, f. 167 (Crofts, 25 November 1770). Quoted in J. Ingamells, A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy 1701-1800 compiled from the Brinsley Ford Archive, New Haven / London, 1997, p. 182.
2. The collection of Autograph Letters and Historical Documents formed by Alfred Morrison (2nd ser., 1882-93): The Hamilton and Nelson Papers, 1, 1756-97, 1893, p. 21, no. 30. Quoted in ibid.
3. Nos. 2-3 in the 1902 catalogue; lot 2 in the 1961 sale, sold for £1,400 to Agnew's.
We are grateful to Professor Nicola Spinosa for confirming the attribution.