FRANCESCO FOSCHI Lot n° 43

(Ancona, 1710 - Rome, 1780) Mediterranean coastal view with vessel Oil on canvas, 154.5X190 cm. Famous for his snowy landscapes, Foschi also devoted himself to painting fantasy views in the wake of the Roman artists he got to know after 1729 when, having left Francesco Mancini's workshop in Fano, he moved to the Eternal City. However, it should be noted that the painter painted seascapes very rarely and moreover of smaller sizes. We recall in this regard the canvas (signed and dated 1765 on the verso) depicting a Burrasca with shipwreck (Cf. Corsini 2002, p. 176, no. 56; oil on canvas, 34.3X45 cm), which proposes a similar composition in small size and whose certain dating offers a compatible chronology for the work presented here. It is also important to note that Foschi reinterprets a purely Baroque theme in an eighteenth-century key and that the so-called 'Fortunes of the Sea' came back into fashion after 1750, thanks to Adrien Manglard (Lyon, 1695 ; Rome, 1760) and his pupil Claude Joseph Vernet (Avignon, 1714 ; Paris, 1789), it being understood that, in our case, similarities are evident with the works of Adrien, whose Roman activity is documented from 1736 when he was accepted at the Academy of St. Luke. We can therefore hypothesize a relationship between the two artists, evaluating the presence in Rome of the Frenchman since 1720 and that in 1748 following the example of Pieter Mulier he would decorate the Sala delle Marine located on the second piano nobile of Palazzo Chigi. Reference bibliography: L. Salerno, I pittori di vedute in Italia (1580-1830), Rome 1991, pp. 284-287 M. Vinci Corsini, Francesco Foschi, Milan 2002, ad vocem