ANTONIO JOLI | Naples, a view of the Riviera di Chiaia, from the North-West;Paestum, a view of the Valley of the Temples

Private collection, Italy, throughout the twentieth century. 

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: This pair of paintings both have had comparatively recent linings, with stretchers of the same period likely to have been made in Spain, so presumably before the turn of the last century, since when they have apparently been in Italy. Both are in exceptionally beautiful condition. They have clearly remained in peaceful surroundings over earlier centuries, with minimal intervention. There are only occasional little minor retouchings in the sky above the view of Naples with none visible under ultra violet light in the foreground. In the view of Paestum a few little retouches can be seen under UV along the lower left edge, and along the upper outermost edge. Elsewhere the magnificent detail of the temples, with the animals and vegetation surrounding them, are perfectly preserved. In the sky the little, light horizontal drifts of cloud sweeping across the larger cloudscape seem to have become slightly thin or possibly faded, and have been lightly strengthened. This is only visible under UV. Elsewhere there is no retouching in the sky, and no trace of damage of any sort throughout these two finely preserved paintings, with their beautiful balance of tone and light perfectly intact. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
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These newly discovered works by Antonio Joli, one of the most admired artists of the eighteenth century, record two iconic southern Italian views: Naples and Paestum.  Both of these cities, located in the region of Campania, were popular stops on the Grand Tour so that painted scenes of their grand and memorable vistas found a ready market among the wealthy travelers passing through.  Executed at height of the artist’s career around 1760, this pair is rendered with such remarkable detail and topographical accuracy that surely the two were intended for an important patron.  
Born in Modena, Joli was a painter of vedute and capricci who travelled to Rome as a young man, where he studied the works of Gaspar van Wittel and Giovanni Paolo Panini, under whom he almost certainly trained, establishing himself in the Eternal City by 1718.  In 1732, he is first documented in Venice, where he assimilated the style of leading vedutisti, namely Canaletto, Marieschi and Carlevarijs.  This early training, followed by sojourns to London and Madrid, served as the foundation to the great success he witnessed in Naples, where he settled in 1755 to serve as Court painter to Charles VII, King of Naples (later Charles III of Spain) and where he received a wealth of commissions from aristocrats passing through the region on their Grand Tour.  Stylistically, the present pair dates to about 1760, the height of his career, and closely compares to a group of large city views and landscapes commissioned by Lord John Montague Brudenell, a Grand Tourist and one of Joli’s most important patrons , around the same period.¹

In the view of Naples, seen from the North-West, we see the coastline of the picturesque suburb of Chiaia, with Castel Sant' Elmo glowing in the sun on the hill above at left, the Castel dell'Ovo stretching out into the water at right.  It is a brilliant, sunny day, with the light gleaming off the water, and the only hint of disquiet in the otherwise calm and peaceful scene filled with boats and figures enjoying the day’s pleasures, is the smoke billowing into the sky out of Mount Vesuvius in the far distance.  Such was the popularity and success of this view that Joli repeated it several times, from varying viewpoints, throughout his career, though only very rarely reaching the quality found in the present pair.²

Paestum, known by the Greeks in antiquity as Poseidonia, is immediately recognizable in the pendant by the three well-preserved Doric temples that rise out of the ancient ruins.  The view is from the West, looking east toward the Cilento Mountains, with the temple of Athena at left, the two Hera temples at right, and remnants of the city’s famed walls stretching across the center.  This ancient metropolis reached its peak in the 6^th century BCE, and though it was never entirely forgotten, with the excavation of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the eighteenth century came renewed interest in this site, located about 100 miles south of Naples.  Joli was one of the first artists to paint views of Paestum, capturing it from a multitude of angles, including from inside the temple structures, indicating he also ventured very close to the ruins themselves, likely executing drawings there in situ as well.³

Dr. Ralph Toledano has seen these two paintings in person and has praised their splendid quality. A copy of his expertise endorsing the attribution for the pair accompanies this lot. 

1.  See, for example, R. Toledano, Antonio Joli, Turin 2006, p. 270, cat. no. V.V.VI.I; p. 289, cat. no. V.V.XIV; p. 292, cat. no. V.V.X.V.III; p. 390, cat. no. N.XXXVIII.1, among others.

2.  Ibid.,  pp 309-313, cat. nos. N.V.1 to 5

3.  Ibid., pp. 390-401, cat. nos. N.XXXVIII.1-N.XLIV.