FRANCESCO NARICI Lot n° 92

(Genoa, 1719 - 1785) Model for the altarpiece depicting the Adoration of the Shepherds in the Ave Gratia Plena church in Marcianise Oil on canvas, cm 44X25 The model under consideration was painted by Francesco Narici around 1775 in preparation for one of the seven altarpieces intended for the Ave Gratia Plena church in Marcianise. The series consists of: the Virgin and Child, the Ecstasy of Saint Rose of Lima, the Virgin Appearing to Gregory the Great, the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Adoration of the Magi, Saints Lawrence and Jerome, and Our Lady of the Rosary, the only one signed and dated 1777. For this undertaking the artist made a series of preparatory studies, of which we know those pertaining to the Apparition of the Virgin to Gregory the Great from a private New York collection, The Madonna of the Rosary and Saints from the Heim Gallery in Paris and the one from the Stanley Collection in Montclair (see Spinosa 1987, p. 129, no. 188, figs. 235-238). Stylistically, these works compare with those painted shortly afterwards for the Genoese church of Santa Zita, dedicated to eight episodes from the titular saint's hagiography, in which the author exhibits a full autonomy of language, detaching himself from the manner of his master Francesco Solimena and approaching the achievements of Francesco de Mura and Jacopo Cestaro (cf. Sanguineti 2001). Reference bibliography: F. Alizeri, Notizie dei professori del disegno in Liguria dalla formazione all'Accademia, I, Genoa 1864, pp. 165-167 N. Spinosa, Un pittore genovese nella Napoli del secondo Settecento: Francesco Narici, in Napoli Nobilissima, s. III, XII, 1973, pp. 165-176 M. Newcome, Genoese Neapolitan Connection in the Eighteenth Century: Palmieri, Campora and Narice, in Antichità Viva, XX, 1981, no. 1, pp. 15-23, 45 N. Spinosa, Pittura napoletana del Settecento dal Rococò al Classicismo, Naples 1987, p. 61 L. Ghio, Francesco Narice, in Painting in Italy. Il Settecento, edited by G. Briganti, II, Milan 1990, p. 804 D. Sanguineti, Neapolitan painting of the eighteenth century in Liguria: the case of Francesco Narici, in Prospettiva, no. 103/104, 2001, pp. 159-168 I Miracoli di Santa Zita di Francesco Narici, edited by L. Parodi, S. Mazzi, Genoa 2019, ad vocem