Oil on canvasA stunning and highly refined capriccio of a Mediteranean harbour with figures conversing in the foreground. Coccorante was among the most extravagantly talented 18th century Italian painters. This large, highly atmospheric capriccio ‘veduta ideata’ features ancient classical ruins with local denizens conversing and pursuing their business, before a harbour with shipping. The scene is magnificently swathed in a twilight that is fully characteristic of Leonardo Coccorante’s work. The artist often used small figures to portray the expansiveness of the architecture and scene. The combination of the classical ruins with figures before a marine background, was a combination that proved highly successful for the artist and he produced many works using this theme. For a painter of such celerity, Coccorante first learned his craft from an artist with all the time in the world. Angelo Maria Costa (1670-1721), an accomplished Sicilian painter of ruins, found himself i...