GIUSEPPE BISON | ROME, A VIEW OF THE PIAZZA NAVONA

This grand and elegant view of the Piazza Navona was painted by Giuseppe Bison, the son of the illustrious nineteenth century view painter Giuseppe Bernardino Bison (1762-1844). The young Giuseppe continued in the tradition of his father, imitating his style and subject matter so closely that their view paintings can be easily confused. The present view, for example, compares very closely to a signed and dated example from 1832 by the elder Giuseppe Bernardino that sold recently in these rooms [1]. The inclusion of the tri-partite lamps in the present lot, however, places this work in the lifetime of the son, as such lamps were not introduced into the Piazza Navona until the second half of the nineteenth century.

In the Imperial era, the location of the present-day Piazza Navona was the site of a stadium built by the Emperor Domitian. Bison's painting shows the piazza after its Baroque transformation under the reign of Pope Innocent X: Francesco Borromini's church of Sant'Agnese in Agone can be seen center left, while Gian Lorenzo Bernini's magnificent Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, with above it the Obelisk of Domitian, stands at the center of the piazza.

1. Sale, New York, Sotheby's, 28 January 2016, lot 321, for $298,000.