(Metz circa 1593 - after 1644 Naples)
The Fire of Troy; and
Aeneas and Anchises escaping from Troy,
oil on canvas, each 145 x 208 cm, framed, a pair (2)

Provenance:
with Galleria Obelisco, Rome;
sale, Christie’s, Rome, 11 and 17 December 2003, lots 504 and 505 (as François de Nomé, Monsù Desiderio);
Private collection, Rome

Exhibited:
Rome, Galleria dell’Obelisco, Monsù Desiderio, 1950, no. 8-9; Rome, Académie de France, Claude Lorrain e i pittori lorenesi in Italia nel XVII secolo, April - May 1982, no. 65 (‘Aeneas and Anchises escaping from Troy’);
Metz, Musée de la Cour d’Or, Enigma Monsù Desiderio. Un fantastique architectural au XVII siècle, 6 November 2004 - 7 February 2005 (‘Aeneas and Anchises escaping from Troy’)

Literature:
Monsù Desiderio, ed. by Giovanni Urbani, exhibition catalogue, Rome 1950, pp. 15-17, nn. 8-9;
V. Mariani, Monsù Desiderio, in: Idea, vol. III, 4; R. Causa, Francesco Nomé, detto Monsù Desiderio, in: Paragone, 75, 1956, p. 44, note 1 (as by an anonymous imitator);
F. Sluys, Monsù Desiderio, in: XX siécle, Paris 1956, pp. 53-63;
F. Sluys, Didier Barra et François de Nomé dit Monsù Desiderio, Paris 1961, p. 130, no. 113-114, ill. p. 132-133;
J. C. Lebensztejn, Une «vanité» de Monsù Desiderio, in: L’œil, 156, 1967, p. 8, fig 9 (‘The Fire of Troy’); Claude Lorrain e i pittori lorenesi in Italia nel XVII secolo, ed. by J. Thuillier, exhibition catalogue, Rome 1982, pp. 202-203, no.65 (‘Aeneas and Anchises escaping from Troy’);
M. R. Nappi, François de Nomé e Didier Barra, l’enigma Monsù Desiderio, Milan 1991, p. 114, A 54 and p. 115, A 55;
Enigma Monsù Desiderio. Un fantastique architectural au XVII siècle, ed. by M. Sary/M. R. Nappi, exhibition catalogue, Woippy 2004, pp. 126-127 (‘Aeneas and Anchises escaping from Troy’)

The present pair of paintings were first shown at the Galleria Obelisco, Rome, in 1950, in an exhibition dedicated to the mysterious painter Monsù Desiderio, who until only a few years previously had been unknown to scholars. This pseudonym, the product of the Italianisation of a French name, was adopted by the Neapolitan biographer de Dominici in his Vite of 1742-43, noting him as a ‘highly praised painter of perspectives and city scenes’ whose works are cited in numerous inventories of the era (see: B. de Dominici, Vite de’ Pittori, Scultori ed Architetti Napoletani, ed. by A. Zezza/F. Sricchia Santoro, Naples 2003, p. 1038).
Subsequently scholarship revealed how beneath this name there were in fact two different artists: Didier Barra, to whom the pseudonym is more accurately connected, and François de Nomé. Both were French and both were active in Naples during the first half of the seventeenth century.

François de Nomé’s painting is characterised by an extravagant and fantastical repertoire that recalls the culture of the northern print tradition, and the productions of Italian artists that were his contemporaries, most notably Salvator Rosa and Angelo Caroselli.
His preferred subjects are buildings in ruin or being destroyed, and imaginary landscapes and architecture influenced by the wonders of the ancient, gothic, renaissance and baroque periods.

The present two canvases appear to be among the largest by François de Nomé’s. They successfully express the fantastical style of this fascinating painter, and they likely belong to the last phase of his career. It has been suggested that they could belong to a unified group of paintings that include those conserved in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Konstmuseum, Göteborg, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris and another in a private collection (see Literature: M. R. Nappi 1991, nos. A54-A57, A119-A120, and A122).

Although the subject of the present paintings refers to the capture of Troy, their execution leaves the artist plenty of space for invention: here the landscape is populated by statues, fragmentary columns and marbles, and there is the suggestion of gothic architecture. All of this is rendered with a swift and densely loaded brush, in which the white highlights emerge from the generally dark tones dominating the compositions.