Pietro Fabris

Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803), British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples, in his residence in the Palazzo Sessa, Naples, by whom commissioned from the artist;
His Sale, London, Christie's, 17 April 1801, lot 43 (``Two Views of Sir. W. Hamilton’s Villa, near Naples, called Villa Angelica, with the first Appearance of the Eruption of Vesuvius in 1767").

W. Hamilton, Catalogo dei Mei Quadri, July 14, 1798 (“Peter Fabris, Two views of Villa Angelica 1767”).

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This charming pair of paintings has not been cleaned or restored for many years. Both canvases have old glue linings. The paint layers are stable, and although slightly uneven, there is no reason to necessarily change the old linings. The paint layers are in wonderful condition in both pictures. They are not abraded or damaged in any way and show hardly any retouches. Cleaning is certainly recommended. A very small amount of retouching would be required.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This sophisticated and delicately rendered pair of canvases exemplifies Pietro Fabris’ superlative ability to combine social observation with an acute topographical understanding of Naples and its surrounding territory. Likely unknown to modern scholars, these works now appear on the market for the first time in over a century. They are key early pictures in Fabris’ oeuvre, and were almost certainly commissioned by the artist's most important patron, Sir William Hamilton, the famous British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples, in whose main Neapolitan residence —the Palazzo Sessa— they hung.

Hamilton lived in Naples from 1764 to 1798, a politically turbulent time, but also a period during which Vesuvius was highly active, thus attracting numerous scientifically curious foreigners. These were mostly Englishmen, products of the Enlightenment, interested in carefully observing and recording Vesuvius and surrounding active volcanic sites. Hamilton built a collection of villas, including homes at Posilipo (the “Villa Emma”) and a house at the royal palace at Caserta, each beautiful and elegant in its own right, but also strategically located with views of  different aspects of Vesuvius and the islands as a whole. Among this assortment of villas was also a small house at Portici called “Villa Angelica”, which Hamilton had built near the base of Vesuvius, and thus served as his primary vulcanological observatory.

Given Fabris’ scientific observation of the local topography, coupled with detailed extant descriptions of the area, it is possible to identify the present villa as the Villa Angelica. As an initial point of reference for the viewer, Fabris has depicted the Camaldolese convent and the Church of Saint Michael the Archangel, strategically situated on a hill to the right of Vesuvius (fig. 1). Hamilton speaks of the convent when describing Villa Angelica in a letter to the President of the Royal Society, James, Earl of Morton, indicating that it is "situated between Ercolano and Pompei, near the Camaldolese convent." ¹  Further documentary evidence supporting this identification is found in the letters of the musicologist Charles Burney, who visited Hamilton in October 1770, shortly after these views were painted. Burney described Villa Angelica as “a small house” with “a large garden, or rather vineyard, with most excellent grapes.”  It happens that they visited Villa Angelica at a particularly exciting moment, for Burney describes his observations of Vesuvius at the moment of eruption, writing, “After dinner we had Music […] As soon as it was dark, the Musical entertainment was mixed with the sight and observation of Mount Vesuvius, then very busy. Mr Hamilton had glasses of all sorts, and every convenience of situation etc. for these observations, with which he is much occupied. […] Though at three miles distance from the mouth of the mountain, we heard the reports of the several explosions before we saw the stones and red-hot matter thrown up by them […]."² Burney's description of the Villa, with a prominent garden functioning as a vineyard, coupled with its close proximity to the foot of Vesuvius, accords with the present views, in which Fabris has very specifically rendered Vesuvius in an early stage of eruption.

Taking into consideration the observational connection to the Villa Angelica, the pictures have now been recognized as those hanging in the Palazzo Sessa. They were two of a number of paintings by Fabris listed amongst Hamilton’s effects.  With the possible invasion of the French who were pushing their way down the peninsula, Sir William was finally forced to inventory his own considerable collections.  This account, which he colloquially entitled the “Catalogo dei mei Quadri” was drawn up with meticulous sang-froid on July 14, 1798 (see Literature).  It was organized in the order of the rooms of the Palazzo Sessa, starting with the bathroom (sumptuously decorated, it seems, with canvases by Luca Giordano and Barthelemy Dupan).  Next to the “gallery” which was filled not only with such great paintings as Velazquez’s Portrait of Juan de Pareja (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) but also with various portraits of his wife Emma Hamilton by leading artists of the day, there was a Prima Camera (First Room) where the present pair hung, and were listed as: “Peter Fabris, Two views of Villa Angelica 1767.”  Later, the pair was sold with the remainder of Hamilton's paintings in a series of sales in March and April 1801. Lot 43 in that sale is described as “Two Views of Sir. W. Hamilton’s Villa, near Naples, called Villa Angelica, with the first Appearance of the Eruption of Vesuvius in 1767.”  With such intriguing evidence suggesting that the present views do in fact depict Villa Angelica, with its flourishing vineyards and ideal placement for a viewing of an early eruption, it becomes all the more apparent that the elegant couple being attended to as they ascend the staircase at left are Sir Hamilton himself, with his then wife Catherine Barlow (m. 1758–1782). 

Despite his considerable output of paintings depicting Neapolitan landscapes and scenes of daily life, as well as prints and drawings of costume, topographical and geological studies, Pietro Fabris remains a somewhat elusive figure. His initial training is unknown, and even his nationality is unclear, but works by him are dated as early as the mid-1750s (two of a set of four canvases with figures dancing and making merry are dated on the reverse 1756 and 1757, (see All'Ombra di Vesuvio, Naples 1990, p. 383, reproduced p. 231). From early in his career he occasionally signed himself as an "English" artist, and he even exhibited works in London at the Free Society and the Society of Artists (in 1768 and 1772 respectively), although his style and subject matter remained resolutely Neapolitan. Despite this, it is still unclear if in fact his heritage was indeed British, or simply that most of his patrons, principal among them Hamilton, and artistic associates were.

We are grateful to Prof. Nicola Spinosa for endorsing the attribution to Fabris, based on photographs. We are also grateful to Carlo Knight for confirming the topographic identification of the views as those of the Villa Angelica. 

1. C. Knight, "Villa Angelica," in Sulle orme del grand tour-Uomini, luoghi, società del regno di Napoli, Naples 1995, p. 243.
2. C. Burney, An eighteenth-century musical tour in France and Italy, edited by P. A. Scholes, London 1959, vol. I, p. 260.