NICCOLÒ CODAZZI Lot n° 97

(Naples, 1642 - Genoa, 1693) Architectural Capriccio Oil on canvas, 63.5X103 cm. Son and pupil of Viviano, Niccolò was also a celebrated painter of perspectives, views and architectural inventions, often conducted with influential figure painters. Recall, for example, his association with Paolo Gerolamo Piola, who in the frescoed loggia in Palazzo Rosso, known as the Loggia of Ruins (1689), offers the most scenic and famous outcome (Marshall 1993, pp. 430-432), or, note the two architectural capriccios depicting a View of an Ancient Palace and a View of an Ancient Spa Complex, exhbited by Dorotheum on October 6, 2009. However, the young Piola was not the only one of the Genoese to make use of Niccolò Codazzi; in fact, Gregorio De Ferrari was also to step into the secondary role of macchiettista (Newcome 1998, pp. 65-67 nn. 50-51). Returning to the work under consideration, one must note a pictorial precocity that suggests its Roman execution, an aspect that can be grasped by observing the severe chiaroscuro of the architecture. The work is accompanied by a critical file by Giancarlo Sestieri. Reference bibliography: D. R. Marshall, Viviano and Niccolò Codazzi and the baroque architectural fantasy, Milan 1993, ad vocem G. Sestieri, Il capriccio architettonico in Italia nel XVII e XVIII secolo, Rome 2015, I, pp. 258-289