Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari

(Roma, 1654 - 1727)

Oil on canvas

cm. 33x29,3 each. Framed

These are two preparatory bozzetti for the fresco decoration of the Rospigliosi chapel in the Roman church of San Francesco a Ripa. At the beginning of the second decade of the eighteenth century, Giuseppe Chiari was entrusted with the entire pictorial programme of the chapel: he executed the altarpiece depicting Saint Peter of Alcantara and Saint Paschal Baylon in Eucharistic adoration, as well as the four oval ceiling frescoes representing Allegories of Virtues. The present pair of paintings clearly relates to two of these ceiling frescoes, in which Chiari expresses his full compositional skill and elegance, within the classicising tradition of his master Carlo Maratta, alongside his impeccable draughtsmanship.