Giuseppe Bonito

GIUSEPPE BONITO (Castellammare di Stabia, 1707 - Naples, 1789).
"The king of the house".
Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Important private collection.
It possesses frame of epoch.
Measurements: 86 x 146 cm; 108 x 167 cm (frame).
The scene represents an everyday moment, almost theatrical, in which several women, probably belonging to a bourgeois domestic environment, congregate around a small child, who, naked and carefree, becomes the center of attention and tenderness. The composition, full of intimacy and warmth, responds to a clearly rococo aesthetic, in which the delight for the scenes of daily life, the elegance of the gesture and the theatricality of the environment are essential elements.
From a formal point of view, the painting presents a carefully choreographed scenic arrangement. The dramatic lighting, which falls on the faces and bodies in the foreground, refers to the use of chiaroscuro inherited from Baroque tenebrism, although softened by the luminous sensuality typical of Rococo. The female figures, elegantly dressed and placed in a dynamic visual and gestural interaction, offer a reading rich in psychological nuances: there is complicity, affection and a kind of idolatry towards the infant, on whom the gaze and action are concentrated. This treatment coincides with the tone of domestic and affective exaltation that characterizes many of Bonito's works.
Giuseppe Bonito, a disciple of Francesco Solimena and heir to the great Neapolitan pictorial tradition, distinguished himself by combining academic mastery with an acute sensitivity to popular themes. His work oscillates between official portraits and genre scenes, standing out for his ability to capture intimate moments with an enveloping atmosphere.
Giuseppe Bonito was one of the most influential Neapolitan painters of the 18th century. A disciple of Francesco Solimena, he soon turned to Rococo delicacy. It was his portraits that opened the doors of the Neapolitan court to him, along with the receipt of numerous commissions for altarpieces and frescoes for churches. As a court painter, in 1741 he portrayed with remarkable realism the embassy of the Ottoman Sultan in Naples, a canvas that was immediately sent to Madrid and is preserved in the Prado Museum. Around 1745 he portrayed Charles VII of the Two Sicilies, future Charles III of Spain, and his wife Queen Maria Amalia of Saxony in two portraits also kept in the Prado Museum. Very remarkable is the portrait of the Infantes Don Fernando and Don Gabriel that is conserved in the Palace of Caserta, painted shortly before the proclamation of Fernando, of only eight years, as king of Naples, surprised in the study, with a compass in the hand and in front of a terrestrial globe. In 1751 he was appointed chamber painter, member of the Academy of St. Luke in Rome in 1752, director of the newly created Academy of Fine Arts of Naples in 1755 and director of the Royal Tapestry Factory of Naples, for which he provided series of cartoons of allegorical and literary character, including the first cartoons of a series of illustrations of Don Quixote woven between 1758 and 1779 destined for the Royal Palace of Caserta.