(Naples active 1740–1804)
Tarantella at the Palazzo Donn’Anna, Naples, with Vesuvius beyond,
oil on canvas, 39.5 x 73.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Christie’s, Milan, 28 November 2007, lot 23 (as Pietro Fabris);
where acquired by the present owner

Pietro Fabris was active in Naples during the second half of the 18th century and his works were highly requested by the cultured and cosmopolitan elite who visited Naples during their Grand Tour.

The present painting relates to another version of the same subject, nearly identical in size (38 x 71 cm), in the Fondazione Maurizio e Isabella Alisio, Naples, signed and dated to the 1760s (see G. Alisio, N. Spinosa, Vedute napoletane della Fondazione Maurizio e Isabella Alisio, exhibition catalogue, Naples 2002, pp. 39, 94). The subject of the dance on the seashore was one of the most successful and frequently requested by Fabris’ patrons.

The depicted central group of dancing women and children is repeated in the Fabris’ Tarantella con Posillipo sullo sfondo, painted in 1756–1757 (see N. Spinosa (ed.), All’ombra di Vesuvio. Napoli nella veduta europea dal Quatrocento all’Ottocento, exhibition catalogue, Naples 1990, p. 383, illustrated p. 231). Some of the other figures return in a composition that gives a more expansive view of Neapolitan life. This work depicts not only a scene with people dancing, but also others eating, set in the same location on the coast of Posillipo with Vesuvius in the background (Cf. N. Spinosa, Pittura napoletana del Settecento II. Da Rococò al Classicismo, Naples, 1988, fig. 405, no. 306). The canvas (72 x 100 cm, signed and date 1766) is kept, along with its pendant depicting Breakfast by the Seashore, in the Royal collection at Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh.