Gaspar van Wittel

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Gaspar van Wittel
1652 or 1653-1736
View of the Bay of Naples with Mt. Vesuvius and the Castello di S. Nicola
Graphite, on two sheets of paper pasted together.
12 1/4 x 30 3/8 inches (312 x 772 mm)
Gift of Janos Scholz.
1983.27

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Inscription: 

Inscribed by the artist, in graphite, at upper right, "S Nicolo del Voglio a Lettere +", and extensively throughout the sheet, identifying the sites (e.g. "Bosco reale" and "Ponte della Persica") and giving color notes (e.g. "vg" ["verde grigia"], "g" ["grigia"], and "au" ["aqua"]). Inscribed on the verso, in graphite: on the right-hand sheet, at upper right, "golfo di Napoli dalla Strada S. Ascangito a lettere in guarda S Nicola del / Voglio / Vaglio"; on the left-hand sheet, at lower center, "di Tomase"; at lower left, "bella J.M".; at lower right, in the hand of János Scholz, "ex Fatio"; below this, in another hand, "Vanvitelli fr 400-"; below this, again in the hand of Scholz, "from Marmir Genève / 1965 ph. fall / 1965".
Watermark: Sun with face. Eyes, nose, mouth, chin delinated. Sun has alternating curved and straight rays.
Watermark: Countermark: Letters "FJ". Chain line between the letters.

Provenance: 
Possibly Bartolommeo Cavaceppi (1716-99), Rome; possibly Vincenzo Pacetti (d. 1820), Rome; possibly Michelangelo Pacetti (b. 1793), Rome (no mark; see Lugt and Lugt S. 2057); Paul Fatio (dealer), Geneva; Marmier, Geneva; Janos Scholz, New York (no mark; see Lugt S. 2933b).
Watermark: 
Associated names: 

Cavaceppi, Bartolomeo, 1717-1799, former owner.
Pacetti, Vincenzo, 1746-1820, former owner.
Pacetti, Michelangelo, 1793-1865, former owner.
Marmier, Marco, former owner.
Scholz, János, former owner.

Bibliography: 

In the Shadow of Vesuvius : Neapolitan Drawings from the Collection of János Scholz. New York : Finch College Museum of Art, 1969, no. 36, repr.
Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Twentieth Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1981-1983. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1984, p. 316-317.
Jane Shoaf Turner, with contributions by Felice Stampfle, Dutch Drawings in the Pierpont Morgan Library: Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries, New York, 2006, cat. no. 348.

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