Procession in the Piazza
of the Church of San Filippo Neri, Naples
Pen and black ink, grey wash and heightening in watercolour.
215 x 350 mm.
(8 1/2 x 13 4/5 inches).
Literature: Petra Lamers, Il viaggio nel Sud dell'Abbé de saint-Non: la genesi, i disegni preparatori, le incisioni, Naples, 1992, pp.189-191 and cat. nos. 155 and 155a; Abbé de Saint-Non, Voyage pittoresque ou description des royaumes de Naples et de Sicile, vol. I, Paris, 1781, p.75, pl. 41; Mario Borrelli, Il Largo dei Girolamini, Naples,1962, p.40 illus.
Auxerre 1743 ~ 1804 Stockholm
Louis-Jean Desprez was a painter, stage designer and architect. In the 1760s he studied architecture at the Académie Royale d'Architecture, Paris, and finally won the Prix de Rome in 1776. Soon after his arrival in Rome, the following year, Desprez was asked by the Abbé de Saint-Non to prepare illustrations for his famous Voyage pittoresque, ou description des royaumes de Naples et de Sicile.1 This publication, intended to illustrate the principal monuments of the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, appeared in four folio volumes between 1781 and 1786. With the permission of the French Academy in Rome, Desprez joined Saint-Non's team which initially included Fragonard and Hubert Robert. However, as Saint-Non decided to keep for himself the drawings executed by these two artists, Desprez became one of the principal draughtsmen for this project between 1777 and 1782-83. He produced innumerable topographical drawings and watercolours remarkable for their vitality and accuracy. Thirty-six engravers were employed to reproduce the drawings for publication.
Our sheet represents the square and the façade of the Neapolitan Church of San Filippo Neri, usually referred to as the Church of the Gerolamini. The resulting print appears in volume one of the Voyage Pittoresque.2 Desprez attempted to show the functional aspects of the architecture by using it as a stage-set for the daily life of the city. We are witnessing the ceremony of a funeral procession and in Naples such events were carried out with considerable display. The dead were carried with face exposed on a bier decorated with tapestry and wreaths of flowers. The coat of arms, a shield with coronet over a diamond, appearing on cloth hangings in front of the façade, must indicate the name and rank of the family. The bier, apparently conveying a female figure, is preceded and surrounded by a large number of members of Penitential Brotherhoods.3
1. Cf. Literature. Petra Lamers, Il viaggio nel Sud....
2. Cf. Literature. Abbé de Saint-Non, Voyage Pittoresque.... pl. 41. The plate was etched by Duplessis Bertaux, completed with a burin by Daudet. The façade was completed c.1780 on the design of Ferdinando Fuga.
3. Cf. also Perrin Stein and Mary Tavener Holmes, Eighteenth-Century French Drawings in New York Collections, exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1999, pp.154-157 for another example of Desprez's work on the Voyage Pittoresque.
