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Lot Essay
French by birth, Didier Barra probably left Metz around 1608 and moved to Italy. He was active in Naples from about 1630 onwards where he was known also as Monsù Desiderio. Here he came into contact with landscape painters from the north, who influenced his evolving style. His most famous work is the Panoramic view of Naples, from the Bay of Naples, (Naples, Museo di San Martino), which is signed and dated 'Desiderius Barra ex civitate Methensi in Lotharingia, F. 1647'. This magnificent picture was influenced by the earliest view of Naples: a panel known as the Tavola Strozzi of 1472-3 (Naples, Museo di San Martino). Seen from a viewpoint out in the Bay, this rare panel influenced all subsequent depictions of the city.
Barra would also have been aware of engravings of Naples, such as Antonio Lafréry's woodcut of 1566 and, more importantly, the work of Alessandro Baratta (active 1620-30). The latter's Fidelissima Urbis Neapolitanae..., published 1629 (see G. Pane and V. Valerio, La città di Napoli tra vedutismo e cartografia - piante e vedute dal XV al XIX secolo, Naples, 1987, p. 106, fig. 31; his preparatory drawings for this engraving were sold in these Rooms, 8 December 1976, lot 8), with its wide panoramic view and topographical detail, was particularly important to Barra's compositions. Barra himself may have trained as a cartographer early in his career, and it is one of his distinctive features as a painter that he combines carefully observed topographical detail with a painterly approach to the surrounding landscape. While using Baratta's engravings as a basis for his compositions, he transformed them by the use of a more elevated viewpoint and greater foreshortening in the perspective, as well as the addition of more pictorial details such as billowing clouds and distant hills, as can be seen in the present work. His views are also further enlivened by a number of ships in the bay, which seem all the more animated due to their exaggerated scale.
We are grateful to Professor Maria Rosaria Nappi who has confirmed the attribution to Didier Barra after inspection of the original.
Barra would also have been aware of engravings of Naples, such as Antonio Lafréry's woodcut of 1566 and, more importantly, the work of Alessandro Baratta (active 1620-30). The latter's Fidelissima Urbis Neapolitanae..., published 1629 (see G. Pane and V. Valerio, La città di Napoli tra vedutismo e cartografia - piante e vedute dal XV al XIX secolo, Naples, 1987, p. 106, fig. 31; his preparatory drawings for this engraving were sold in these Rooms, 8 December 1976, lot 8), with its wide panoramic view and topographical detail, was particularly important to Barra's compositions. Barra himself may have trained as a cartographer early in his career, and it is one of his distinctive features as a painter that he combines carefully observed topographical detail with a painterly approach to the surrounding landscape. While using Baratta's engravings as a basis for his compositions, he transformed them by the use of a more elevated viewpoint and greater foreshortening in the perspective, as well as the addition of more pictorial details such as billowing clouds and distant hills, as can be seen in the present work. His views are also further enlivened by a number of ships in the bay, which seem all the more animated due to their exaggerated scale.
We are grateful to Professor Maria Rosaria Nappi who has confirmed the attribution to Didier Barra after inspection of the original.