Filippo Comerio (Locate Varesino, 1747 – Milan, 1827), Apollo's Chariot

Filippo Comerio (Locate Varesino, 1747 – Milan, 1827)

Apollo's Chariot

Oil on canvas, 112 x 174 cm – with frame, 124 x 186 cm

Apollo sits at the center of the composition, wrapped in a bright red cloak that stands out against the radiant golden glow behind him, the only true luminous fulcrum of the scene. The sun god dominates the chariot, while around him crowds a multitude of figures who seem to support him, implore him, or accompany him on his celestial journey: draped women, winged putti, a dark figure holding an hourglass on the left, and on the right the four rearing white horses, rendered with almost sculptural energy, poised to launch the chariot into the clouds. The clouds, painted in brown and pink tones, occupy the entire background, while the light, concentrated on the figure of the god, radiates downward, illuminating the bodies and garments of the crowd below, leaving the edges of the canvas in shadow. A decisive comparison for the attribution to Filippo Comerio comes from a large, autographed drawing, acquired in 1995 by the Istituto Centrale della Grafica in Rome. Executed in black pencil, pen, and brown ink with wash, it is monumental in size, over two meters high and three meters wide. The sheet follows the same composition as the painting, with Apollo, the chariot, and the horses arranged according to the same scheme, but excludes some figures on the right side of the canvas, a sign of a rethinking of the work during the process. Comparing the two works allows us to understand Comerio's compositional method, which began with a large-format preparatory drawing, almost a cartoon, and then translated it into painting by enriching the margins. This process reveals the artist's graphic and decorative influence, which stems from his familiarity with porcelain and majolica drawings: the clear lines and almost linear construction of the figures derive from this decorative sensibility, later transferred to oil painting.

Filippo Comerio was born in Locate Varesino, the son of Agostino and Maria Antonia Castiglioni. He trained in Bologna at the Accademia Clementina, a pupil of Vittorio Maria Bigari and the Gandolfi family, before moving to Rome in 1773, where he developed a neoclassical style by studying antiquities and frequenting Füssli's circle. Leaving Rome in 1777, he settled in Faenza, where he remained for five years, working on the Ovals with Four Holy Doctors, which still hang in the cathedral today. There he married Lauretana Benini, daughter of the first painter in Count Ferniani's majolica factory, and devoted himself to ceramic decoration, developing a personal style based on the famous "Comerio green" and other colors such as black, rust, and purple. After the 1781 earthquake he left Faenza to return to Lombardy, working in his final period in the Bergamo area, in competition with Vincenzo Bolomini, before moving with his family to Milan in 1800.

Apollo's Chariot can be compared to other mythological and allegorical works by the painter, which confirm his classicist stylistic signature: the cycle of the Four Allegories of the Seasons in Palazzo Daiano de Valsecchi in Bergamo, the Offerings to the Earth Gods in Villa Locatelli Milesi in Villa d'Almè, and the horses in the fresco of Elijah Throwing His Cloak to His Disciple Elisha, very similar to those in the painting examined here. Even the sacred works, such as the Four Holy Doctors in the Faenza Cathedral or the frescoes in Spirano with the Glory of Saints Gervasius and Protasius and Saint Ambrose in Ecstasy, display the same stage construction for crowded groups and the same theatrical management of light. It is likely that the canvas served as a model for a fresco now lost, perhaps intended for one of the private villas decorated by Comerio in Lombardy, such as Villa Benaglio in Valbrembo, of which no trace remains.