Pietro Cappelli (d. Naples 1724)

Peasants amongst classical ruins

Details

Pietro Cappelli (d. Naples 1724)
Peasants amongst classical ruins
signed 'Pietro CAppelli' (lower centre)
oil on canvas, unframed
58½ x 47¾ in. (148.5 x 121.5 cm.)

Provenance

(Possibly) Ercola Michele Brasciforte e Pignatelli, Principe de Butera de Radali, by whom bequeathed to his daughter
Donna Caterina di Branciforte (1768-1814) by whom bequeathed to her husband
Georg, Principe de Radali (d. 1841), by whom bequeathed to his brother
Ernst Wilhelm Wilding, Principe de Radali (1792-1863), Schloss Königsbrck, and by descent to his son
August Friedrich Graf Wilding von Königsbrck, from whom acquired in 1893 with Schloss Königsbrck by
Geheimen Kommerzienrat Carl Robert Bruno Nauman, and by descent at Schloss Königsbrck until confiscated in 1946 by Soviet occupying forces, and subsequently on loan to the Albertinum, Dresden.

Lot Essay

Little is known about the artist, who is believed to have painted only architectural scenes of ruined thermae. His father, Giuseppe Capelli, was a Roman theatre painter who was working in the Theatre of S. Bartolomeo in Naples when his son was born. The only other known signed picture by the artist, also of classical ruins with figures, is in the Museum in Schleißheim. An unsigned pair of capricci by the artist was sold at Finarte, Rome, 8 May 1990, lot 163, £40,000.

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