Saverio della Gatta

Della Gatta was, along with Alessandro D’Anna, one of the more skilful Neapolitan masters of the gouache technique, a medium that became increasingly popular for handsome vedute like these, executed to satisfy the ever increasing demand from foreign visitors, eager to bring home a memento of their voyages.  Not much is known about his beginnings, but Della Gatta studied with the painter Jacopo Cestaro, and often signed his work with the name of Xavier.  In addition to his colorful vedute, which always, like here, include lively groups of figures, he became well known for his illustrations of Neapolitan folklore and costumes.  Along with D'Anna, he received a commission from the royal family to record the traditional costumes of the Kingdom of Naples.

Dated 1780, both these gouaches are still early works by the artist, and in fact they are based on depictions of the same views, which Pietro Fabris painted in oils, presumably during the 1770s.¹  In his later years Della Gatta's gouaches are not executed with the same quality, becoming repetitive and less beautifully finished, perhaps because as time went on the artist found himself trying to satisfy a larger but less demanding and refined clientele.

^1. Respectively: Sale, London, Sotheby's, 4 December 2013, lot 38; and L. Fino, Vedutisti e incisori stranieri a Napoli, nella seconda metà del '700, Naples 2003, fig. 104