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Description: | Signed: yes Description: As so often in eighteenth-century Italian landscape this is a highly composed scene, drawing on observed ruins but also combining them into an essentially fictive composition, indebted to a long line of artists and artistic conventions. The tomb depicted in the foreground - a columbarium from the Augustan period - was a favourite place to visit for aristocratic travellers on the Grand Tour. The inscription on the right imitates the one which appears on the edge of the tomb, added in 1544 by the Canonici Regolari Lateranensi from the nearby church of Santa Maria di Piedigrotta. On the other hand the treatment of the subject owes much to Vernet and there are a number of related landscapes by Bonavia. Although many of Bonavia's paintings survive (often signed and dated), little is known of his training or career. What is clear is that Bonavia borrowed heavily from Caude-Joseph Vernet, not only in subject and viewpoint ,sometimes to the extent of almost copying, but also in the way that he applied colour. Graf Karl Joseph Firmian (1716-82), Austrian ambassador to Naples 1753-8, was an enthusiastic patron. His inventory includes 17 works by the painter including landscapes, views, mythological subjects and subjects inspired by literature. Most remain unidentified. | Subjects: | townscape) landscape; buildings and gardens (classical ruins | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: Bonavia, Carlo (Italian painter, active 1755-1788) Æ | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=8363... | Go to resource |
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