Lot 1057 | The Unpleasant Message

BONITO, GIUSEPPE
1707 Castellammare di Stabia - 1789 Naples
attributed

Title: The Unpleasant Message.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Mounting: Relined.
Measurement: 73 x 100cm.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.

Provenance:
Private ownership, Italy.

Considered by art historians to be a leading figure in 18th-century Neapolitan painting, Giuseppe Bonito's paintings show clear comparisons with masters of his time. Often holding public office (painter to the Royal Chamber from 1751, Academician of San Luca from 1752, Director of the Academy of Drawing from 1755), Bonito was a gifted and versatile painter in his themes and in adapting his style to the various commissions and fashions of his time.
The present painting can be compared with another version of the same subject by Bonito published by Ferdinando Bologna in his monograph on Gaspare Traversi: Bonito indeed has a style that oscillates between his master Francesco Solimena and the brilliant Gaspare Traversi; with the latter, in fact, he shares an interest in interior scenes. His first pictorial works in this direction can be dated around the 1730s and immediately met with great interest among collectors: this particular collector's luck is described by De Dominici, who notes in his writings a large number of buyers in this particular genre of pictures.