View of the Bay of Naples from the Bay of Chiaia, with the Certosa of San Martino, Capodimonte, Castel dell’Ovo, and Vesuvius beyond,
oil on canvas, 50 x 131.5 cm, framed

Proveance:
European private collection

The present painting depicts a view of the Bay of Naples from the West, similar to that depicted in many other works of the same period by artist such as Tommaso Ruiz.
This point of view was a popular one, often accompanied by a pendant depicting the bay from the opposite side, from the Castel dell’Ovo with the Riviera di Chiaia and Posillipo beyond. The prototype can be seen in a View of the Riviera di Chiaia and the Vesuvius beyond by Gaspar Butler (Vienna, private collection), which was part of a series of paintings executed in the 1730s for the Count von Harrach, the Austrian Viceroy in Naples (1728-1733) (see N. Spinosa, L. Di Mauro, Vedute napoletane del Settecento, Napoli 1996 p. 52 Tav. 15). The view can be compared also to the painting depicting Naples from Posillipo by Jan Ruiz (Naples, private collection; see Spinosa, cit, p. 55, tav. 19; with his pendant Naples from Castel dell’Ovo p. 55, tav. 20) and to the view of Naples from the West by Tommaso Ruiz (Naples, Alisio collection; see Spinosa, cit, p. 235, fig. 42).

The present work belongs to the genre of “veduta” first experimented by Gaspar van Wittel, who inspired the local school of view painters, many of whom were not Neapolitan and not even Italian.
The present view is characterized by a detailed representation of figures and buildings, most of them are easily recognizable.

A tentative attribution to Gabrielle Ricciardelli, active in Naples in the first half of the 18th Century, has been suggested.