Dwa capriccia architektoniczne z kolekcji Muzeum Narodowego w Gdańsku – próba atrybucji

Abstract

The article analyses two Italian paintings from the collection of the National Museum in Gdańsk, which so far have not been a subject of scientific inquiry. Both works, of unknown provenance and authorship, were included in the Museum’s collection after World War II. They are architectural capriccios: a type of landscape in which buildings or their fragments, often supplemented by staffage, are placed in juxtaposition with fantastical objects produced by artistic imagination. The popularity of these architectural pieces and their development as an independent genre can be observed from the first half of the 17th century, and it is paintings by Viviano Codazzi (1606–1672) and Alessandro Salucci (1590–1655) that were instrumental in the appearance of the fashion for such motifs. Based on the comparative stylistic analysis, an attempt was made to attribute the works from the Gdańsk collection to the two leading Neapolitan artists from the 17th and 18th century. The first painting shows a clear dependence on the work of the already mentioned Viviano Codazzi, an artist associated with Naples and Rome. The painting displays similarities to the artist’s works from the 1650s and the 1660s with the characteristic solutions in the field of composition and chiaroscuro. We can see the same precise way of applying architectural details and the perfect knowledge of the principles of perspective, unsurpassed by any of his numerous followers. The second painting, showing the view of a port with picturesque ruins in the foreground, was assigned to Gennaro Greco (1663–1714), a creator of imaginary architectural landscapes and the master of luminist effects and sublime, delicate colour. This pioneering artist, working at the turn of the 18th century was considered the most important Neapolitan painter of his time. Despite the large number of works presenting architectural capriccios which have survived in public and private collections, this painting genre remains one of the most difficult to study. This results from the fact that capriccios were usually not painted by top-class artists, and many paintings remain anonymous. The two paintings from Gdańsk museum’s collection stand out due to their stylistic features characteristic of the greatest creators of this painting genre.