Carlo Bonavia

Private Collection, Germany

The canvas is relined and stable. The paint surface is in good condition over all. The craquelure pattern in the lower section has resulted in some slight lifting with minor losses lower left and a small loss, approximately 1 by 1/4 inch, lower right. Some scattered old retouching in the sky, now discoloured, is visible to the naked eye. The varnish is somewhat uneven and discolored in certain areas. Inspection under UV reveals further scattered retouching throughout, and some inpainting of old frame abrasion. The painting would benefit from a light clean and fresh varnish. Offered in a carved gilt wood frame.
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In spite of the increasing number of works by him that have come to light in recent years, Carlo Bonavia remains an elusive figure to art historians.  He is thought to have gone to Naples from Rome, but little is known about his life beyond the time frame of his activity in that city:  View of the Pier and Lighthouse at Naples, inscribed and dated 1751 (London, Christie's, 11 March 1983, lot 18) and View of the Castel dell'Ovo, inscribed and dated C. Bonavia P.A. 1788 (Honolulu, Hawaii, Academy of Arts, Samuel H. Kress Collection, no. K1667; acc. no. 2991.1) bookend Bonavia's career and are believed to be his earliest and latest extant pictures.  Although Bonavia appears to have been trained in the Neapolitan landscape tradition of Salvator Rosa (1615-1673) and Leonardo Coccorante (1680-1760), he was most strongly influenced by the French marine and landscape painter Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789), who worked in Naples between 1737 and 1746.  Bonavia's paintings share with Vernet's a delicate Rococo palette and an atmospheric, rather than analytical, approach to landscape.     

In this grand yet serenely atmospheric river scene, Bonavia has stayed true to the principles which he absorbed through Vernet's example. The viewer is presented with a landscape which recedes out on the left towards the horizon line and a group of buildings, possibly a monastery. The composition is bisected in the middle foreground by a tree trunk, to the right of which the topography elevates sharply adjacent to a rocky cliff with horses carefully leading a cannon down a path. Figures down below gesture at the activities taking place beside them with apparent bemusement, clearly enjoying their surroundings more than the struggling group before them.  

Bonavia's idyllic landscapes and evocative marines were popular with the Grand Tourists who stopped in Naples on their way to Pompeii and other famous sites.  Counted among his patrons were Lord Brudenell and Graf Karl Joseph Firmian, Austrian ambassador to Naples from 1753 to 1758, whose inventory included 17 works by the painter, most of which still have not been identified.  Although Bonavia was well respected during his own lifetime, he was all but forgotten until the 20th century, his works often mistaken for those of Vernet.