Lot 55: FEDELE FISCHETTI Drawings for a printed book dedicated to Livia Dora Carafa

FEDELE FISCHETTI
Drawings for a printed book dedicated to Livia Dora Carafa
Watercolour on paper

These three drawings constitute a unique insight into the late career of Fedele Fischetti, a prominent artist in the 18th-century Naples. He is more popular for his decorating frescoes in the Reggia di Caserta and other Neapolitan nobility residences rather than for his small-size artworks. In fact, what we have here are some very fine drawings for the frontispiece and other illustrations and chapter ends to Prose and verses to the memory of Livia Doria Carafa, Princess of H. R. I of Rocella, published in Parma (1784) in Bodoni font.
All Fischetti drawings were etched for the print by Raffaello Morghen. Savoring strongly of formal balance, already neoclassical in style and of extraordinarily refined taste and complex iconography drawing on Cesare Ripa’s rich Iconology, the first drawing displayed here is in the frontispiece of the abovementioned book.
Vincenzo Maria Carafa della Spina dedicated this book to the loving memory of his late spouse, deceased in 1779. For this purpose he summoned a large group of Arcadians and artists to contrive a complex iconographic programme for the volume. The stories behind the book were meticulously examined and recounted by Massimo Pisani in 1990 (see Massimo Pisani, “I ritratti di livia Dora Carafa, principessa di Roccella di Fedele Fischetti e di Giuseppe Sanmartino: un contributo alla ritrattistica napoletana”, in Antologia di Belle Arti, NS, 35, 36, 37, 38 – 1990. Studi sul Neoclassicismo, II, pp. 30-42). This study reproduced the book frontispiece as well (see Pisani, ib., p. 32, fig. 3).
All three drawings are a valuable rediscovery for the graphic art of the first manner of Neapolitan neoclassicism, as well as important addition to the repertoire of Fischetti.
The sheets are in perfect condition.
mm 235 x 160 each one of three.

mm 235 x 160 each one of three.

Watercolour on paper