Lot 203: *BERNARDINO NOCCHI (1741-1812)

a pair, both oil on canvas Although Lucchese by birth, Nocchi worked for much of his life in Rome, where he was appointed Pittore dei Sacri Palazzi Apostolici by Pope Pius in 1780. Nocchi subsequently received commissions to decorate numerous palazzi in Rome. His most important works of this period are the frescoes in the Palazzo di Consulta and in the Musei Vaticani. This pair of paintings are the bozzetti, or more likely the modelli (presentation pieces), for part of the ceiling decoration in the chapel of the Palazzo Vidoni-Caffarelli in which the artist worked between 1773 and 1774 (G. Sestieri, Repertorio della Pittura Romana della fine del Seicento e del Settecento, 1994, vol. I, pp. 136-7). The figures are seen dal sotto in su and are sharply foreshortened. The four female figures represent the Four Cardinal Virtues and are identifiable by the symbols they hold: Temperance (holding a bridle), Prudence (with a snake and mirror), Fortitude (dressed in armour and with a lion, symbol of courage), and Justice (holding scales and a sword) (the last two illus. in Sestieri, op. cit., vol. II, figs. 815-816). The male figures, in the larger hexagons, represent the Four `Greater Prophets': Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Jeremiah (two of them illus. in Sestieri, ibid., figs. 817-818). These paintings are accompanied with larger fictive openings, in which the Three Theological Virtues (Faith, Hope, and Charity) are represented (Faith and Charity are illus. in Sestieri, ibid., figs. 823 and 825).