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The flamboyant Parnassus by Enrico Albrizzi

The large fresco applied on canvas (225 x 370 cm) entitled I poeti salgono gloriosi il Parnaso ove si innalza il tempio di Apollo and dated 1765 (on the open book to the left of the De tranquillitate animi) (lot 170, estimate 30,000 – 50,000 euro) is the most famous work by Enrico Albrizzi (Vilminore, 1714 – Bergamo, 1775) and was painted in 1765 to decorate the ceiling at the top of the staircase on the second piano nobile of Count Romili’s (now Marenzi) Palace in Bergamo.

The scene depicts a ‘bambocciata of literary inspiration and subject matter’, with the most famous poets gloriously ascending Parnassus, where the temple of Apollo stands and the Muses dwell, one of whom drives the bad poets back down with a whip.

Lot 170. Enrico Albricci (Vilminore, 1714 – Bergamo, 1775), The poets ascend the Parnassus in glory where the temple of Apollo stands. Fresco applied on canvas, 225X370 cm. Estimate €30,000 – 50,000

It was probably Count Romili who indicated the subject to the painter, as other literary-inspired works by Albricci he commissioned would suggest. According to Caversazzi (Cf. Caversazzi 1939), the interpretation finds references to the contemporary polemics of the magazines Il Caffè, by the Milanese Pietro Verri (published from June 1764 to May 1766) and the Frusta letteraria directed and written almost entirely by the Venetian Giuseppe Baretti under the pseudonym of Aristarco Scannabue who, published between 1763 and 1765, was a great success, especially due to the heated tones in which Baretti expressed his opinions towards numerous contemporary or past literati, certainly involving the interest of Count Romili, whose cultural sensitivity is well known.

Having said this, the coincidence between the creation of the fresco and the closing of the two magazines is curious, suggesting the correct interpretation by Caversazzi, bearing in mind that discussions on the ongoing literary controversy in Bergamo were very much alive among intellectuals and humorously alluded to by Albricci in his tasty painting, “one of the best things about that flamboyant artist” who invites everyone to calm down by quoting Seneca.