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The Assumption of the Virgin

1751
Not on view
The Neapolitan late-Baroque master Francesco de Mura executed three major ceiling paintings representing the Assumption of the Virgin, all of them strongly influenced by the example of his great master Francesco Solimena (1656-1747). The first of these was an Assumption painted about 1727 on the vault of the sacristy of the Annunziata in Airola, near Benevento for which an oil sketch is in the Pio Monte della Misericordia, Naples. In 1737 De Mura signed and dated a ceiling painting on canvas destined for a church in Gallipoli and now in the episcopal palace of that city. Domenica Pasculli Ferrara cites three oil sketches for the Gallipoli Assumption. In 1986 Lawrence Turčic identified a pen and wash drawing by De Mura in the Louvre as a study for the Gallipoli picture; the Louvre drawing had been classified as a work of the studio of Francesco Solimena (Inv. 9787-1, see Monbeig Goguel and Vitzthum 1967, no. 83).

The most ambitious Assumption of the Virgin by De Mura is that painted in 1751 on the ceiling of the Nunziatella in Naples (see Enggass 1964, fig. 7). An oil sketch for this fresco is preserved in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, and a presumably autograph replica of the Capodimonte sketch is in the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (see Enggass 1964, fig. 8). The Museum’s drawing may be an early preparation for the monumental Nunziatella fresco. There are, however, notable differences between the drawing and the fresco. The apparition of the Holy Trinity at the summit of the painting is lacking in the drawing, where there are fewer figures in the foreground. In the drawing the setting is architectural, while in the fresco the background is a landscape. There are also differences in the shape of the field.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Assumption of the Virgin
  • Artist: Francesco de Mura (Italian, Naples 1696–1782 Naples)
  • Date: 1751
  • Medium: Pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, over black chalk
  • Dimensions: 17 3/16 x 10in. (43.6 x 25.4cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Mr. and Mrs. Carl L. Selden and Mrs. Barbara K. Caturani Gifts and Rogers Fund, 1971
  • Object Number: 1971.243
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

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Kings, Bishops and Popes: design for ceiling., Francesco de Mura Italian, Pen, ink and wash on paper
Kings, Bishops and Popes: design for ceiling.
Francesco de Mura
1696–1782
The Vision of Saint Benedict, Francesco de Mura Italian, Pen and brown and gray ink, brush and gray wash, over graphite
The Vision of Saint Benedict
Francesco de Mura
1740
Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti, Giovanni Paolo Panini Italian, Pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, watercolor, over graphite
Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti
Giovanni Paolo Panini
ca. 1756–58
Youth Playing a Pipe for a Satyr, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Il Grechetto) Italian, Brush with colored oil paint; paper partly saturated with oil; lined
Youth Playing a Pipe for a Satyr
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Il Grechetto)
1645–50
Queen Esther Approaching the Palace of Ahasuerus, Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellée) French, Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, heightened with white, over black chalk
Queen Esther Approaching the Palace of Ahasuerus
Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellée)
1658

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