A young couple with an old crone and a dog; and A youthful couple admonished by a priest

This pair of ovals relates to a pair sold at Sotheby's, London, 6 December 1995, lot 199 (£30,000). Spinosa descibes the latter as 'due rari esempi di "pittura di genere" del Bardellino verso gli anni Settanta' (N. Spinosa, Pittura napoletana del Settecento del Rococò el Classicismo, Naples, 1987, p. 121, no. 158 and p. 276, figs. 196-7). The figure of the old crone in the Mandolinata is particularly close to the same figure in the first of the present paintings.