Fedele Fischetti

Fedele Gioffredo Fischetti (30 March 1732, Naples – 25 January 1792, Naples) was an Italian painter of the Neoclassical period. Most of his works are frescoes of an allegorical or mythological nature. His work shows the influence of Pompeo Batoni.

Life and work

Early life and career Born into a family of Neapolitan painters, he first worked in the bottega of Gennaro Borrello, whose daughter he married in 1753. He may have visited Rome during the 1750s, which would explain the moderated classical rethinking of the contemporary Rococo style that is evident in his early work. Once he had established his reputation, he was called on to create decorative works for churches and palaces. His first such works date from 1760. His first major work was a canvas depicting the Holy Family, for the church of in Benevento (1763).

He executed works on sacred subjects for many Neapolitan churches during the period 1759–66. Among these are the canvases for the church of the Spirito Santo, including the Presentation of the Virgin; the Birth of the Virgin for Santa Maria in Portico; two canvases for Santa Maria la Nuova; and the frescoes for the nave vault of S Caterina da Siena.

Mature career In the mature and late periods of his career, Fischetti was a brilliant decorator, as seen in his fresco cycles for the villas and palaces of the Neapolitan nobility and for the Bourbon court of Ferdinand IV. The artist attempted to reconcile the characteristics of late Baroque decoration with the new demands of formal clarity imposed by the court, using a lightened colour scheme. From the end of the 1770s and throughout the following decade, he produced allegorical, mythological and historical frescoes, including those for the Palazzo Fondi; Alexander of Aragon’s Entry into Naples for the salone of the Palazzo Maddaloni; and the Dream of Alexander the Great and other scenes for the gallery of the Palazzo Casacalenda (now the Palazzo Reale di Capodimonte).

Between 1778 and 1781, he worked in the royal palace of Caserta, where he produced the frescoes of the Four Seasons and the related Golden Age. In 1784, Fischetti frescoed the Palazzo Doria d'Angri, where he adopted the courtly and classical decorative styles of such northern European painters as Heinrich Füger and Angelica Kauffman, who were then active in Rome. A famous fresco, in the vault of the Palazzo Doria d'Angri, depicts the triumph of Admiral Lamba Doria against the Venetians in 1298. Virgin, St Anne, with Saints Carlo and Geronimo in the Chapel of the Assumption in the church of Virgin of the Rosary with Santa Rosa for the Chapel of the Prince of Roccella in the church of San Domenico Maggiore Ceilings for the Palazzo Francavilla (now known as the Palazzo Cellammare), painted alongside Pietro Bardellino and Giacinto Diano

His pupils included Paolo Girgenti and Giuseppe Camerata, as well as two of his own sons, and Odoardo.