An Allegory of Ceres with Sebetus and the Siren Parthenope; and Peace and Abundance

The present pictures are autograph reductions of replicas of two frescoes from an important but little known series executed by de Mura in 1738 as decorations for the side passages of an alcove in the Royal Palace, Naples. In 1737 de Mura, Francesco Solimena, Andrea Vaccaro and Nicola Maria Rossi were commissioned to provide decorations for the Royal Palace to celebrate the marriage of the young King Charles III to Maria Amalia of Saxony on 19 June 1738. De Mura's frescoes were destroyed in the first half of the nineteenth century but the original compositions are documented in replicas which were sent to Madrid in 1738 (for a complete discussion of the commission, see G. d'Alessio, Nuove osservazioni sulle committenze reali per Francesco de Mura tra Napoli, Torino e Madrid, Prospettiva, no. 69, Jan. 1983, pp. 70-87). There are notable differences between the present pictures and their models in format and in details.

We are grateful to Dott. Gino d'Alessio for confirming the attributions from photographs. He dates the pictures to the 1760s and plans to include them in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the works of Francesco de Mura.