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Lot Essay
A masterful storyteller who devoted his considerable talents – and often his acerbic wit – to scenes from everyday life, Gaspare Traversi was one of most original painters in eighteenth-century Italy. Born in Naples, the young Traversi was apprenticed to the elderly Francesco Solimena. He also carefully studied the seventeenth-century naturalist painters of his native city, from Preti and Ribera to Caracciolo and Francanzano. From 1752, Traversi spent a great deal of time in Rome, residing alternately there and in Naples.
Although Traversi undertook religious commissions throughout his career, his signature works are his genre scenes. Many of these were populated by the urban elite and emerging middle classes, while others turned an eye instead to the socially marginalized, offering an incomparable window into the quotidian realities of the impoverished neighborhoods of eighteenth-century Naples and Rome. While Traversi generally treated the poor with great sympathy, he typically portrayed the bourgeoisie wearing the costumes and aping the manners of the aristocracy, presenting their aspirations with satirical, humorous, and often moralizing intent.
The attribution of this newly-discovered pair of pendant paintings is endorsed by Nicola Spinosa, who attributes the works to the early career of the artist, around 1749-50, when he was still in Naples (private communication, 25 October 2022). In the pendants, two male sitters are shown with their rather unattractive faces contorted in uproarious laughter; both gesticulate towards their viewers. One sports a powdered wig, which barely covers his brown locks, as well as a sleeveless green garment over a white camicia; his companion, meanwhile, wears a lady’s bonnet, beribboned and festooned with lace, and a similar pink garment over a white camicia. Both the pink and green garments bear distinctive silver embellishments, closer in form to bells than to standard buttons. It is possible that the pair are servants who have surreptitiously donned the costumes of their employers, enjoying a moment of riotously unflattering mimicry. At the same time, and especially given their distinctive (and distinctively noisy) costumes, it might also be possible to hypothesize that the two figures represent actors in a comedy; further investigation of popular theatricals of the relevant period in Naples could prove a fruitful exercise in this regard.
Although Traversi undertook religious commissions throughout his career, his signature works are his genre scenes. Many of these were populated by the urban elite and emerging middle classes, while others turned an eye instead to the socially marginalized, offering an incomparable window into the quotidian realities of the impoverished neighborhoods of eighteenth-century Naples and Rome. While Traversi generally treated the poor with great sympathy, he typically portrayed the bourgeoisie wearing the costumes and aping the manners of the aristocracy, presenting their aspirations with satirical, humorous, and often moralizing intent.
The attribution of this newly-discovered pair of pendant paintings is endorsed by Nicola Spinosa, who attributes the works to the early career of the artist, around 1749-50, when he was still in Naples (private communication, 25 October 2022). In the pendants, two male sitters are shown with their rather unattractive faces contorted in uproarious laughter; both gesticulate towards their viewers. One sports a powdered wig, which barely covers his brown locks, as well as a sleeveless green garment over a white camicia; his companion, meanwhile, wears a lady’s bonnet, beribboned and festooned with lace, and a similar pink garment over a white camicia. Both the pink and green garments bear distinctive silver embellishments, closer in form to bells than to standard buttons. It is possible that the pair are servants who have surreptitiously donned the costumes of their employers, enjoying a moment of riotously unflattering mimicry. At the same time, and especially given their distinctive (and distinctively noisy) costumes, it might also be possible to hypothesize that the two figures represent actors in a comedy; further investigation of popular theatricals of the relevant period in Naples could prove a fruitful exercise in this regard.