Francesco De Mura

Francesco de Mura (Naples 1696 – 1782) Madonna with Child, oil on copper, 26 x 20 cm (oval), framed The present composition - a small devotional image – was very probably executed for a private patron. The stylistic subtleties, such as the rhythmic contours, the light, airy colours and the delicate painterly technique indicate that this may be a work by Francesco de Mura. The artist undertook his training in the workshop of Domenico Viola in Naples, later becoming a close colleague and pupil of Francesco Solimena. He took his stylistic lead to start with entirely from Solimena's monumental Baroque style, subsequently developing a more restrained manner, however, that was indebted to the Rococo, as can be seen in this painting. De Mura, who was able to look back on a long career as a respected artist, largely worked in Naples, although he was also active in Turin, where he decorated several rooms at the Palazzo Reale with Arcadian landscapes in delicate, glowing colours. His later works seem to anticipate Classicism in their expressive austerity. The painter, who was responsible for a large workshop, influenced a large number of Neapolitan artists of the second half of the 18th century, including Pietro Bardellino, Fedele Fischetti and Giacinto Diana.

LOT 165 THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN FRANCESCO DE MURA NAPLES 1696 - 1782 THE PIETA oil on canvas, a bozzetto 3,000—5,000 GBP 31 by 25.3 cm.; 12 1/8 by 10 in. oil on canvas, a bozzetto With T. Agnew & Sons, Ltd, London, (30037), cat. no. 2. With T. Agnew & Sons, Ltd, London, (30037), cat. no. 2.

Lot No. 482 description Francesco de Mura (Naples 1696–1782) The LutePlayer, oil on canvas, 92.7 x 172.7 cm, framed, We are grateful toProfessor Nicola Spinosa, Naples, for endorsingthe painting’’’’’’’’s authenticity (correspondence, January2011). This elegantcomposition is an impressive rendering of Neapolitan joie de vivre.Prof Spinosa has identified our painting as the prototype of aseries of similar and almost equally decorative paintings thatattest to the continuous success of this pictorial invention. Mura’’’’ ’’’’s student Bardellino is the author of a copy of the presentcomposition. Prof Spinosa: “Io pubblicai un dipinto di Bardellino(La Pittura Napolitana del Settecento, scheda 158, p. 121, fig. 196) con il titolo diMandolinata, che è proprio una precisa replica, con varianti nella figura della donna in secondo piano, dell’’’’’’’’ originale di de Mura in Suo possesso...”. Francesco deMura was trained in the workshops of Francesco Solimena andDomenico Viola. He is considered Solimena’’’’’’’’s most importantpupil, who combined the traditions of Neapolitan paintingfrom the heyday of that epoch with new tendencies from theNorth, particularly the school of Turin. Es early as 1715he was commissioned to decorate the church of San Niccolo allaCarita in Naples. In 1728 he produced a series of ten canvaspaintings for Santa Maria Donnaromita in Naples. Whereas his earlyworks are still informed by the Southern Italian High Baroque, he eventually was to adopt the upcoming style of Neo-Classicismas a court painter in Turin. These new stylistic influences arealso recognizable in the present painting, in which thecool colours and the brilliance he had familiarized himself with inTurin merge with a typically Neapolitan motif. Specialist: Dr. Alexander Strasoldo estimate EUR30.000,- to 35.000,- conversion Online Catalogue: Old Master Paintings - 13.04.2011 Old Master Paintings Auction Date: 13.04.2011 - 17:00 Location: Palais Dorotheum Public Viewing: 02.04. - 13.04.2011 Category: Old Master Paintings Absentee bidTelephone bid Watch Terms andconditions Increments Items marked "+" are subject to fulllegal VAT of 20 %, those marked "-" are subject to reducedVAT of 10 %. Items marked “V” (consignment sales) are sold in the name and for the account of theconsigner. Items marked "0" are not liable toVAT. Items marked "*" might be liable to ResaleRoyalties. * Prices shown in currencies other than the currency usedfor the auction (foreign currency information) arestrictly for information only! Items will be sold in local currencyand the final price in any other currency is based on the actualrate of exchange at time of rendering the account. Figuresfor foreign currency information are rounded and based on the up todate rate of exchange of 23.03.2011

LOT 33 THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN - FRANCESCO DE MURA NAPLES 1696 - 1782 A PAIR OF ALLEGORIES AN ALLEGORY OF SPRING: FIGURES IN A GARDEN WITH FLOWERS INTERRACOTTA POTS WITH A WOMAN PLAYING THE TAMBOURINE AND A YOUNG BOYTHE RECORDER; AN ALLEGORY OF AUTUMN: FIGURES IN A GARDEN WITH A YOUNG MANPLAYING THE MANDOLA AND A WOMAN OFFERING HIM FRUIT FROM ABASKET Quantity: 2 a pair, both oil on canvas, unlined 100,000—150,000 GBP measurements note each: 237 by 128 cm.; 93 1/4 by 50 3/8 in. AN ALLEGORY OF SPRING: FIGURES IN A GARDEN WITH FLOWERS INTERRACOTTA POTS WITH A WOMAN PLAYING THE TAMBOURINE AND A YOUNG BOYTHE RECORDER; AN ALLEGORY OF AUTUMN: FIGURES IN A GARDEN WITH A YOUNG MANPLAYING THE MANDOLA AND A WOMAN OFFERING HIM FRUIT FROM ABASKET Salvatore e Francesco Romano sale, Florence (Palazzo MagnaniFeroni), Sotheby's, 13 October 2009, lot 647, where acquired by thepresent owner. Francesco De Mura was trained in the Baroque style of FrancescoSolimena's studio but he soon developed his own idiom and becameone of the major exponents of the Italian Rococo, winningcommissions from both local and international patrons. The presentworks should be dated to between 1752-59, when De Mura was at hispeak; in the overall lightness of the scenes and the delicatechromatic harmony we can see how far De Mura had developed from hisBaroque origins.These two allegories of Spring and Autumn , which oncewould have hung with their companions Winter and Summer, aremarked by their large size and relatively narrow format. However,in each painting the design is broadened by the central figure ofthe seated woman whose body forms an S-shape which opens up thecomposition rhythmically, moving our eyes from side to side.The Arcadian setting of the present works, subtly alluded to in thebackground, mirrors the prevalent taste at the time for depictionsof Ovidian stories. Within these settings, De Mura often repeatedfigure types: the seated putto in the Allegory of Spring isone of the artist's motifs and is the mirror-image of the flautistin his Erminia amongst the shepherds, formerly with GallerieCarroll in Munich; the seated woman with a tambourine is liftedfrom a similarly joyous Tarantella formerly on the artmarket.1 Stylistically both works should be compared toa horizontal Allegory of Spring from the same period (signedand dated 1759) in the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio.2However, as Professor Nicola Spinosa points out, the underlyinglink between the present allegories and the aforementioned works isnot so much the bucolic setting or mythological subjects as thecelebration of life via the medium of music- represented here inits popular form through the mandola and tambourine- which was amuch visited theme in Neapolitan Settecento painting.A copy of Professor Spinosa's expertise accompanies the presentlot.1. See N. Spinosa, Pittura napoletana del Settecento , Naples1986, vol. I, p. 167, cat. no. 285, reproduced p. 363, figure 343,and p. 165, cat. no. 275, reproduced p. 357, figure 332.2. Idem , p. 165, cat. no. 276, reproduced p. 357, figure333.

Francesco de Mura (Naples 1696-1782) The Madonna and Child oil on canvas, unframed 39 5/8 x 30 1/8 in. (100.7 x 76.5 cm.) Lot Notes Francesco de Mura was the favourite pupil of Francesco Solimena,the dominant figure of Neapolitan painting in the first half of the18th Century. A painter of great energy and intelligence, de Muraworked in Naples at a time of great opportunity, particularlybecause of the supply of royal commissions from the Bourbon court.In 1737, Queen Maria-Amalia of Saxony commissioned him to make twovast allegorical ceiling paintings for the Palazzo Reale, Naples.His reputation for palace decoration led to further patronage fromthe Kings of Sardinia in the Palazzo Reale, Turin, where hisbeautiful, classically inspired frescoes survive in pristinecondition. Despite this aptitude for public painting, de Mura wasalso a portraitist and the creator of small-scale devotionalworks.