A Harbor Scene with Roman Ruins

Size: 15 ¼ x 29 ¼ inches (39 x 74 cm) and with frame: 23 x 37 inches (58 x 94 cm)

Student of Viviano Codazzi and Angelo Maria Costa, Leonardo Coccorante is one of the best landscape painters of the first Neapolitan eighteenth century, often assisted in the parts of the figure by John Martial, Joseph Tomajoli and James Po, as evidenced by the De Dominici. The artist is the author of landscapes and fantastic views, characterized by marine backgrounds stormy and whims of pre-Romantic intonation. The first revaluation of his personality is due to the studies of Oreste Ferrari (1954) and Sergio Ortolani (1970), where the figure of Coccorante emerges for executive and invention quality. The research addressed in anticipation of the exhibition on the Neapolitan eighteenth century in 1979 and the consequent depth analyzes Nicola Spinosa and Leonardo di Mauro, grant adequate critical reading of its production. The painting in question is to be referred to the artist's maturity, when the original codazziane influences and Angelo Maria Costa, give way to new interpretations Rosiane recalled with rococo sensitivity, in analogy with the paintings of Greek Gennaro.
Coccorante studied in Rome with Jan Frans van Bloemen, called Orizonte, an influential Northern master close to the circle of Claude Lorrain. In Rome, Coccorante also came in contact with the work of other landscape painters such as Viviano Codazzi, Francesco Cozza and Salucci. Back in Naples early during his career, he painted landscapes with ruins for the local nobility and mostly for King Charles of Bourbon. Some of his most splendid nocturnal and tempest scenes can be admired in the Royal Collection at Capodimonte as well as in various Roman museums and princely collections.