Saint Bonaventura,
inscribed on the upper edge: DIVUS BONAVENTURA,
oil on panel, 39 x 30.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Giovanni Andrea de Marinis, Marchese of Genzano, Naples, before 1824;
by inheritance to Giuseppe de Sangro (1776–1837) 3rd Prince of Fondi, Naples;
de Sangro Collection until 1895 (as Raphael);
Sale Sangiorgi Auctions, Naples, 22 April – 1 May 1895 (according to label on reverse);
European Private Collection

Documentation:
1824 inventory, Archivio di Stato di Napoli, Archivio de Sangro, copy of the inventory of assets of Ecc. M.se di Genzano, Giovanni Andrea de Marini: “Raffaello Sanzio, San Bonaventura, sopra tavola” (published by M. Savarese 2006);
Inventory of the De Sangro collection from the mid-19th century: ACS, Min. P.I., Dir., Gen. AA.BB.AA., Dr. Musei Gallerie e Pinacoteche, Naples, b. 250, fasc. 117–121, catalogue of paintings comprising the gallery of the Prince of di Fondi (as Raphael): “Stanza Rossa. nos. 154, 11, Raffaello, Testa di san Bonaventura” (published by G. Manieri Elia 1991, p. 333)

Literature:
O. Turchetti, Napoli e il suo congresso, Napoli al cospetto della civiltà contemporanea, Pistoia 1846, p. 182;
S. D’Aloe, Naples ses monuments et ses curiosités, Naples 1853, p. 525 ;
G. Manieri Elia, La quadreria napoletana de Marinis-de Sangro dall’influenza del classicismo romano al dissolvimento del collezionismo aristocratico, in: E. Debenedetti, Collezionismo e ideologia: mecenati, artisti, teorici dal classico al neoclassico, Rome 1991, pp. 317, 318, 326, 333, n. 96 and 99;
M. Savarese, La collezione de Sangro dei principi di Fondi in tre inediti inventari di famiglia: da quadreria seicentesca a moderna raccolta di arti decorative, in: Napoli nobilissima, 7.2006, 5/6, pp. 192, 203

The present painting belonged to the prestigious collection of the Neapolitan Giovanni Andrea de Marinis (1755-1824), Marchese of Genzano, whose paintings had been admired by esteemed foreign Grand Tourists and were described by writers of the time. The inventories include paintings by Van Dyck, Rembrandt and Rubens, as well as Bassano and various Roman painters of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The adventurous life of de Marinis, witness to the revolutionary events in Naples of the late eighteenth century, was recounted by biographers of the time. After the death of his wife, Isabella Caracciolo di Martina, and his son, Filippo, who was executed in Naples as anti-Bourbon, De Marinis in 1824 left his daughter Maria Constanza, who married Giuseppe di Sangro, Prince of Fondi, as sole heir. The painting remained in the collection of the Princes of Fondi until 1895.