Fedele Fischetti (Naples 1732 – Naples 1792) – Allegory of Music.

Description

Fedele Fischetti (Naples 1732 – Naples 1792) – Allegory of Music.

Oil on canvas, in gilded and painted wooden frame.

Provenance: formerly collection of Edoardo Caracciolo Carafa, Naples.

Expert opinions: We wish to thank Prof. Riccardo Lattuada for having orally confirmed the attribution of the painting.

Fedele Fischetti ranks among the leading figures of Neapolitan painting in the second half of the eighteenth century. Trained at the Accademia del Disegno in Naples, he was shaped by the influence of Francesco Solimena and Corrado Giaquinto, and developed a style that blends Rococo elegance with a classicist luminosity. He worked for the most distinguished Neapolitan patrons and was also active as a decorative painter for the Bourbon court. The painting depicts an allegory of Music through three winged putti in a natural landscape. The central putto, crowned with laurel and holding a thyrsus, embodies the Apollonian figure presiding over the arts. To either side, two putti are engaged in reading musical scores: one holds open a book of manuscript music, the other a sheet on which the words “Pietà, pietà, Minerva” can be read, an aria with recitative composed by Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816) for the opera “La modista raggiratrice”, performed in Naples in 1787. This detail provides a precise terminus post quem for the dating of the painting.

Condition report: Relined canvas. The painted surface is in good condition.