Old Master Drawing By Giovanni Fontana (genoa 1795 - 1845 Genoa) Mythological Scene

Giovanni Fontana (Genoa 1795 – 1845 Genoa)

Mythological Scene (recto); Figure studies (verso)

Brown wash, heightened with white, over black chalk, 177 x 245 mm (7 x 9.6 inch)

Executed c.1837

Provenance
Private collection, The Netherlands

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Giovanni Fontana was born in Genoa in 1795 and was taught by Carlo Baratta at the Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti in Genoa, where he later became a professor himself.1 His studies were concluded in Rome. Fontana worked in the Neoclassical taste, and decorated several churches in his native Genoa with religious compositions. He was also known for his theatre decorations, such as de decors for the Carlo Felice theatre, representing The Feast of Panathénées, and for the Modena theatre. He painted a Roman Charity and Patriarch Joseph for King Charles Albert of Sardinia, a fresco in the church of San Martino in Sampierdarena, and two works for the church in Lavagna. He died prematurely at the height of his career in 1845.

The present work comes from an album of sketches and drawings by the artist, signed “Fontana Giov” on the inside cover, and dated 1837. The album included architectural drawings, studies after Antique sculpture, landscape views, anatomical studies and drawings after frescos, including Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel.


1. For the artist, see G. Bolaffi (ed.), Dizionario Enciclopedico dei Pittore e degli Incisori Italiani dall’XI al XX secolo, Turin 1972, vol. V, p. 35 and Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, Munich 1992- , vol. 42 (2004), p. 156.