Lot Essay
Vanvitelli went to Naples in 1700, on the invitation of the Spanish Viceroy Don Luis de la Cerda, Duke of Medinaceli, who had encountered him and his work in Rome when he was serving as Spanish Ambassador to Pope Innocent XII. The artist remained there until June 1702 and must have returned several times subsequently. He certainly visited Naples in 1711, the year of the present painting, since another version, in the Galleria Sabauda at Turin, is inscribed and dated 'Parthenope 1711'. This view of the Darsena, the dock constructed by an earlier Viceroy, Don Pedro de Aragon, in 1688, was very much Vanvitelli's favourite subject. No fewer than nineteen versions are known, ranging in date from 1700 to 1722 (Briganti, op. cit., pp. 260-6, nos. 345-63). While features are occasionally repeated - the ship to the right of centre in the present picture recurs in the unsigned version sold in these Rooms on 5 July this year, lot 70 - all the versions vary widely in size and format as well as in the clouds, boats, figures and other details. All are of remarkably high quality (see ibid., p. 260). A drawing of the composition is in the Museo di San Martino, Naples (ibid., pp. 367-8, no. D239, illustrated).
The year 1711 was a particularly significant one for the painter, since it saw his admission to the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, a rare achievement for a practitioner of the academically-scorned genre of view-painting.
The year 1711 was a particularly significant one for the painter, since it saw his admission to the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, a rare achievement for a practitioner of the academically-scorned genre of view-painting.