Fedele Fischetti Naples 1732 - 1792

The present works are similar, both in subject and style, to another Allegorical figure (Liberalità) by Fischetti offered in Rome, Christie's, 6 December 2001, lot 319. All three paintings would appear to date from Fischetti's late period, that is to the last decade of his life, and may be compared to his frescoes in Palazzo Caracciolo di Torella (after 1780) and to those in Palazzo Doria d'Angri (1784) in Naples: the figure of Concordia, with all her associated symbols, also appears in the latter. Though for much of his career Fischetti adopted a style closely aligned to that of his Neapolitan contemporaries, such as Francesco de Mura and Giuseppe Bonito, in the 1770s and '80s he became more heavily reliant on the international neoclassical style of painters such as Pompeo Batoni, Anton Raphael Mengs and Angelica Kauffmann, whose influence is clearly evident in the present pair.

We are grateful to Prof. Nicola Spinosa who, on the basis of colour transparencies, has endorsed the attribution to Fischetti.