Giuseppe Bonito

Giuseppe Bonito (Castellammare 1707-1789Naples) Portrait of Niccoló Jommelli,three-quarter-length, in a blue coat and satin waistcoat oil on canvas 93.4 x 73.2cm (36 3/4 x 2813/16in). Request Condition Report Footnote: Jommelli's precocious talent was recognised early by his father,Francesco, who enrolled him at the Conservatorio di S. Onofrio,Naples, in 1725 at the age of 11, under the tuition of FrancescoDurante (1684-1755). Upon completion of his studies, he wrote hisfirst two opere buffe , L'errore amoroso in 1757 and Odoardo the following year. Both of these works achievedgreat success in Rome and not long after he was summoned to thecity by Prince Henry Benedict Stuart, later Cardinal York. In 1741he went to Bologna to compose music for Metastasio's Ezio ,and whilst there also studied briefly under Padre Giovanni BattistaMartini (1706-1784), who became a lifelong friend. After passing afew years in Venice, he returned to Rome to take up the prestigiousposition of chapel master for the basilica of Saint Peter's. Helater visited Vienna before accepting a post as Kappellmeister toDuke Karl-Eugen of Wüttemburg in Stuttgart in 1753. It was herethat he enjoyed some of his greatest successes and composed whatare now regarded as among his best works. He returned to Naples in1768 and remained there until his death in 1774. It was during thislast period that he was depicted in Pietro Fabris's painting of theapartments of the Earl of Seaforth in Naples. The most important part of Jommelli's output was his operas,particularly his opere serie in which he placed greateremphasis on the narrative and drama of an opera through theprominence of the orchestra, rather than of the singers. Heachieved an international fame, writing works for cities not onlyin Italy but throughout Europe. Lady Elizabeth Craven (1750-1828),travelling in Naples after Jommelli's death and despite claimingnever to have been a great admirer of Italian music, wrote of him'Jommelli has a genius expressly made for music, and he brought itto perfection'.

LOT 213 GIUSEPPE BONITO CASTELLAMMARE DI STABIA, NEAR NAPLES 1707 - 1789 NAPLES PORTRAIT OF THE INFANTA MARIA JOSEFA DE BORBÓN, FULL LENGTH, WITH A CUP OF CHOCOLATE AND A DOG 30,000—40,000 GBP measurements measurements note 127 by 86 cm.; 50 by 34 in. Description oil on canvas CATALOGUE NOTE The Infanta María Josefa de Borbón (1744-1801) was the daughter of Carlos de Borbón (1716-1788), later Carlos III of Spain, and María Amalia of Saxony (1724-1760). The portrait was painted in Naples circa 1758-9 by Giuseppe Bonito, a favourite at the court of King Carlos and who, in 1748, had executed a series of nine paintings of his children, all of which are today in the Prado, Madrid. The pair to this portrait, depicting María Josefa's younger sister María Luisa (1745-92), was sold in these Rooms 22 April 2009, lot 81.

Giuseppe Bonito (Castellammare di Stabia 1707-1789 Naples) Elegant company playing cards in a palatial interior oil on canvas 42 x 62 in. (106.8 x 157 cm.) Provenance Bought by the late husband of the present owner in London, 1953. Literature F. Bologna, Il Settecento Napoletano, Turin, 1962, pl. XXII. Lot Notes A student of Francesco Solimena, Bonito became one of the most influential artists in Naples in the eighteenth century. Throughout his career, but in particular during the latter part of the century when Rome was the arbiter of Neo-classicism, his style remained firmly within the rich, painterly traditions of Naples. In his early work, which consisted mainly of religious subjects, he soon developed a personal, neo-baroque style characterized by sweeping movement, bold chiaroscuro and a saturated palette reminiscent of both Solimena and Luca Giordano. However, during the 1740s Bonito became a successful portraitist and genre painter in a style that differed from that of his other works. Continuing to use a strong chiaroscuro, the features of figures are depicted with intense realism and their costume is painted with rich colours and in great detail. Most of Bonito's genre subjects were painted before 1750. An exercise in social observation, they depict scenes of everyday life in the salotti of the sumptious palazzi in Naples. Bernardo de Dominici, in his contemporary history of Neapolitan painting, Vite dei pittori, scultori ed architetti napoletani (published in 1743), notes that Bonito's genre pictures were 'praised by all the people [...] and [...] won him a great reputation' (p. 611). His genre pictures were sought after in particular by the rich Neapolitan borghesia, such as the cicisbeo (Neapolitan for a young gallant) leaning on his walking stick looking at the game of cards in the present picture. Yet Bonito's genre pictures were also sent abroad - for example a pair, A musical party and The Poet, that were sold, Christie's, New York, 11 January 1991, lot 67 ($748,000), which had been sent to Spain on completion. Some of the character types - for example the old man with pince-nez (probably the family tutor), the ugly maid carrying a tray of coffee in the background, or the cicisbeo with his stick - recur in most of Bonito's depictions of the daily life of the Neapolitan borghesia (for example in the above-mentioned pair). However, one, the laughing young lady with a rose who looks directly at the beholder while being offered a caffè by a gentleman standing by her side, can be identified. The similarity between her features and those of the wife of the artist in The painter's studio (Museo di Capodimonte, Naples) is such that it is likely that Bonito's wife modelled for the present picture (see N. Spinosa, Pittura napolitana del Settecento, Naples, 1986, no. 293, fig. 356). We are grateful to Professor Riccardo Lattuada for confirming the attribution of this picture after examining it in the original. The picture is sold with a letter by Professor Ferdinando Bologna confirming the attribution (4 March 1957).

Lot Description Giuseppe Bonito (Castellammare di Stabia, nr. Naples 1707-1789 Naples) Portrait of a gentleman, full-length, in Ottoman robes, a page beside him, on a terrace before a Solomonic column oil on canvas 78 x 59 in. (198 x 149.8 cm.) Provenance Charles Lindley. Mrs. F. Hughes, Penshurst, Leicester; Christie's, London, 2 July 1928, lot 18, as 'Zoffany' (9 gns. to Davis [Charles Davis, the dealer and agent]). Richard Yarde-Buller, 4th Lord Churston, Lupton Park, Churston, South Devon; Christie's, London, 15 July 1960, lot 70, as 'Zoffany' (45 gns.). Lot Notes The visit of the Turkish Ambassador, Hagi Hussein Effendi, to Naples from 30 August to 18 October 1741, accompanied by his exotic court with its extravagant and colourful dress, started a fashion amongst the Neapolitan establishment and the milordi residing in the city. Bonito's portrait of the Ambassador in the Prado, signed and dated 1741, suggests that he was the ideal artist to portray the fashionably dressed (J. Urrea Fernandez, La Pintura Italiana del Siglo XVIII en Espana, s.l., 1977, p. 309, pl. xcv), however, this picture is one of the few known by the artist of an as yet to be identified, probably English, visitor. De Dominici records in his Vite de' pittori, scultori ed architeeti Napoletani (Naples, 1745, III, p. 714) that 'fu proposto alla Maestà del nostro clementissimo Re per dover fare i ritratti dell'inviato del gran Sultano con suoi cortigiani, i quali riuscirono cosi naturali e ben situati insieme, sedendo l'inviato sul cuscino, adattato sul suolo su un ricco tappeto, com' /e loro usanza. Venuto poi a Napoli 'ambasciatore del re di Tripoli, ordin/o sua Maest/a che anche di costui e di sue genti ne fussero effigiati i ritratti dal Bonito, che in tela simile a figure intere egli dipinse naturalissimo.' A portrait by Bonito of The Ambassador from Tripoli was sold in these Rooms, 14 December 1990, lot 30 (£170,000). We are grateful to Professor Riccardo Lattuada for confirming the attribution on the basis of a transparency.