Naples, 18th century Nativity scene shepherd

Naples, 18th century Nativity scene shepherd Carved and lacquered wood, h. 24 cm   The adoring shepherd is made in Naples during the 18th century, a period in which Francesco Londonio (1723 –1783) was active in Milan. He was a versatile painter who worked for important clients belonging to the city's nobility. In fact, he created several portraits for the Borromeo, Greppi, and Mellerio families, also receiving commissions for works on other subjects, among which stand out the rural and bucolic scenes or portraits of shepherds and peasants that perfectly reflect the most frugal and true aspects of daily life at the time. The experience in this specific field of art allowed him to make the nativity scenes he executed from the 1760s onwards even more realistic and vivid, after his trip to Naples (1763-1764). He drew inspiration from this city for this sacred subject, given the long artisan tradition present in the Parthenopean city specialized in the creation of nativity scenes in paper, terracotta, cardboard, and various other materials. Londonio's two nativity scenes would derive from this, although many others are attributed to the master's hand, present today in Milan: one at the Diocesan Museum, coming from the Villa Gernetto of Count Giacomo Mellerio and painted on paper and cardboard, the other, composed of about thirty figures painted on cardboard with wooden support, at the church of San Marco. In addition to the protagonists, such as the Virgin, the Child, or the Magi, attention should be paid to rendering the daily reality of rural life through the clothes, objects, and accessories of the peasants, shepherds, and travelers who are found within these two representations. The same verisimilitude, rustic but at the same time pathetic, can be found in this shepherd, who connects the Neapolitan tradition with Londonio's painting, both in appearance and in the very conception of these figures, which in some cases even threaten the central role of the protagonists, so expressive, communicative, and truthful they are.