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Lot Essay
Following his initial training in his native Modena, Antonio Joli moved to Rome, where he was exposed to the architectonic fantasies of the Galli-Bibiena family and Giovanni Paolo Panini. As an up-and-coming vedutista, he next executed scene paintings in Modena, Perugia and Venice, where he came into contact with Canaletto around 1735. Joli’s reputation spread across the Alps, inspiring him to travel to Germany, England (1744-48) and Spain (1750-54). He returned to Venice in 1754 and was elected a founder-member of the Academy the following year. Shortly thereafter he was summoned to Naples by Charles VII (future Charles III of Spain), for whom he organized court entertainments. Joli remained in Naples for the remainder of his life, becoming a successful vedute and capriccio painter for English aristocrats on the Grand Tour such as Lord John Brudenell.
The present work depicts two islands in the popular Lake Maggiore in northern Italy, a subject represented by Vanvitelli in 1690 (Palazzo Colonna, Rome) and again in 1715, possibly as an overdoor (Sotheby’s, New York, 22 January 2004, lot 76). Isola Bella, which dominates the composition in the left foreground, houses the seventeenth-century Palazzo Borromeo, a masterpiece of Baroque architecture and landscaping. The smaller Isola dei Pescatori is nestled in the right middle ground before the distant rolling hills of Lombardy. Joli painted both islands independently in a pair of view pictures possibly for Lord Brudenell (Sotheby’s, London, 5 July 1989, lot 4; see M. Manzelli, op.cit., no. W.17, fig. 105 and W.18, fig. 106). The present painting reveals the artist’s unique blend of topographical exactitude (evinced in the precise rendering of the Palazzo Borromeo) and creative manipulation of nature (the background hills perfectly echo the forms of the prominent islands).
The present work depicts two islands in the popular Lake Maggiore in northern Italy, a subject represented by Vanvitelli in 1690 (Palazzo Colonna, Rome) and again in 1715, possibly as an overdoor (Sotheby’s, New York, 22 January 2004, lot 76). Isola Bella, which dominates the composition in the left foreground, houses the seventeenth-century Palazzo Borromeo, a masterpiece of Baroque architecture and landscaping. The smaller Isola dei Pescatori is nestled in the right middle ground before the distant rolling hills of Lombardy. Joli painted both islands independently in a pair of view pictures possibly for Lord Brudenell (Sotheby’s, London, 5 July 1989, lot 4; see M. Manzelli, op.cit., no. W.17, fig. 105 and W.18, fig. 106). The present painting reveals the artist’s unique blend of topographical exactitude (evinced in the precise rendering of the Palazzo Borromeo) and creative manipulation of nature (the background hills perfectly echo the forms of the prominent islands).