Giacinto Diano

Essay:

Little is known about Diano's early training. He is first recorded in 1752 when he joined the workshop of Francesco de Mura in Naples. Diana was strongly influenced by de Mura's brand of late-Baroque religious painting with a rich palette and dynamic compositions with flowing drapery and expressive, sinuous figures.

After a brief stay in Rome around 1760 where Diano encountered the works of Pompeo Batoni and Luigi Vanvitelli, he returned to Naples. Here he became a teacher at The Accademia del Disegno in 1773 while maintaining a prolific studio. He is rightfully recognised as an important figure in the development of late 18th-century Neapolitan art.

Diano received numerous commissions for religious paintings, notably The Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas and The Miraculous Image of St. Dominic at Soriano respectively on the apse and vault of San Pietro Martire in Naples in 1763. In 1768 and 1776 he worked on frescos in the sacristy of Sant'Agostino della Zecca Consecration of the Temple in Jerusalem and Descent from the Cross.

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A wave of coins spills from a horn of plenty into the lap of a laurel-crowned figure. Likely representing Fortune or Abundance, more coins flow at her feet while around her in the clouds putti swirl and jostle. An animal, perhaps a dog, lopes forward and further down a winged figure takes a laurel crown from a tray and wields a trumpet to announce his mistress.

The secular nature of this subject suggests that the design was intended for a palazzo rather than a place of worship. It is possible that this design would have been intended to be the central ceiling decoration for a long room, but it is perhaps more likely that it would have formed part of a cycle with other allegorical figures of the patron's choice.

Provenance:

With Colnaghi, London, 1960s;
Purchased there by the family of the previous owners