Circle of Giuseppe Sanmartino (1720-1793), Italian, Naples

Sotheby's Florence, Salvatore e Francesco Romano. Antiquari a Firenze. A Century as Antique Dealers at Palazzo Magnani Feroni, 12 October 2009, lot. 219

This female terracotta figure (an allegory or a saint) was sold at Sotheby’s Florence, in the Salvatore and Francesco Romano Collection sale (12 October 2009, lot. 219), with a generic attribution to the circle of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, although without any supporting documentation.

The passing years have not been in vain, as specialized research has produced significant advances in this field, particularly in the study of Neapolitan 18th-century figures and bozzetti, examined in dialogue with the marble statues executed by the leading sculptors active in the Parthenopean capital.

A crucial milestone in this regard is the publication of the exhibition catalogue Giuseppe Sanmartino, Naples, 1720 – 12 December 1793 by Riccardo Naldi, Sascha Mehringer, 2025.

Within this context, particularly revealing is the comparison between our terracotta female figure and another by Giuseppe Sanmartino (figs. 70–71), also sold at Sotheby’s in the Romano sale and at the time tentatively attributed to the circle of Gabriello Brunelli (1615–1682). This piece can now be compared with La Sanità by Giuseppe Sanmartino, in the church of the Santissima Annunziata in Naples (figs. 81–83).

This juxtaposition constitutes the pivotal argument on which the attribution of our terracotta figure to the circle of Giuseppe Sanmartino is based.

RELATED LITERATURE

Riccardo Naldi, Giuseppe Sanmartino, Naples 1720 - 2 Dicembre 1793, Sascha Mehringer, 2025, figg. 70-71; figg. 81-83.