Bernardino Vincenzo Fergioni Rome 1675 - after 1736

Few biographical details concerning Fergioni’s activity are known and very few paintings by him have survived; facts even more surprising given that he must have been highly successful in his own day. His studio in Rome counted amongst its pupils the celebrated view-painters Andrea Locatelli, Adrien Manglard, Paolo Anesi and Claude-Joseph Vernet (the last of these joining him in 1732). It is thought that Fergioni started out as an animal painter, much in the style of Rosa da Tivoli, but that he went on to specialise as a painter of views (vedutista) and marines.

In the 18^th Century Messina was represented far less than other ports or cities on the Italian mainland, such as Naples or Rome, but examples by the leading vedutisti of the day are known; Gaspar van Wittel and Antonio Joli among them (the former in a painting of 1713 in the Università degli Studi, Messina, the latter in Lord Montagu’s collection at Beaulieu, Hampshire). Fergioni himself must have painted the view on other occasions and one such is recorded as having been exhibited in the cloister of San Salvatore in Lauro in Rome in 1717: “Dell’Ill.ma Casa [Falconieri]: Una Marina, da 7 e 5 [piedi] con molte figure, ed il Porto di Messina, più piccolo, del S.r Bernardino Forgioni” (cited by G. De Marchi, Mostredi quadri a S. Salvatore in Lauro (1682-1725). Stime di collezioni romane, Rome 1987, pp. 342 ff.). Though there is nothing to support a possible identification of that view with the present work it does show that Fergioni is likely to have turned to the subject more than once and indeed must have looked to the examples of his contemporaries, adopting a meticulous style somewhat reminiscent of Tommaso and Giovanni Ruiz and a colour palette close to Joli’s own.

This view is particularly interesting for it shows the port of Messina from the sea, depicting with topographical accuracy the city and its surroundings as they would have appeared in the 18^th Century, prior to the three earthquakes that would substantially alter its appearance (in 1783, 1894 and 1908) and the bombardment of the city during the Second World War. A similar frontal view is taken by Vanvitelli for his picture in Messina University (see G. Briganti, Gaspar van Wittel, Milan 1996, pp. 278-9, cat. no. 401, reproduced) but Fergioni has painted his subject from further away. The view is taken from the south-east and shows the city splayed out at the foot of the Peloritan mountains. The peninsula in the foreground is that of San Ranieri, with the lighthouse built on Montorsoli’s (1555) and Lazzaretto’s (1576) designs; the Cittadella behind it built on Carlo Grunenberg’s design (after 1678); the pointed fortified structure of the Forte San Salvatore rests between the peninsula and the mainland; and the Palazzata, the array of buildings along the quayside. Further along the coastline the church of Santa Maria della Grotta, erected between 1622 and 1639, is visible and right in the centre of the city the Cathedral of Messina is also discernible.

This painting is an important addition to Fergioni's oeuvre, not only because it is a rare signed work by the artist but also because it can be dated fairly accurately due to the presence of the Habsburg flag, with its two-headed eagle. After a period of seven years under the Duke of Savoy (1713-20) Sicily passed under Austrian rule in 1720, thus providing us with a terminus post quem for the dating of this picture.