A set of four views of Naples: Naples, a view of the bay taken from Posillipo looking towards Mount Vesuvius; Naples, seen from the Castel Dell'Ovo, with the Riviera di Chiaia and Posillipo beyond; Naples, seen from the bay, with the Molo Grande in the centre and the Castel Dell'Ovo; Naples, a view of the Gulf of Pozzuoli and the Port of Baia

Little is known about the life and career of Tommaso Ruiz, but his views of Naples in the middle of the eighteenth century provide a key record of the city's development. This set of four, which must have been a significant commission, likely date to around 1740, when Ruiz returned to Naples after working in Sicily and Malta. They describe the city in vivid colour and detail, showing Naples before the demolition of the Torre di San Vincenzo and prior to the reconstruction of the port under Charles III, Duke of Bourbon. We are grateful to Dr. Ermanno Bellucci for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs and for his kind assistance in cataloguing this lot.