In June 1969, in response to a letter from the Ministry of Education urging the superintendents of Parma and Milan to find suitable paintings in their warehouses for furnishing the state rooms of Palazzo Chigi, the painting was chosen by the then superintendent Ghidiglia Quintavalle, packed up, and sent to Rome, where it arrived at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers in February 1970 (all the details are collected in Fornari Schianchi 1997b). As already mentioned with regard to no. 241, the painting in question is not exactly its pendant, differing in size and following it by a year in the date of execution. For the rest, the romantic spirit of the canvas is identical, very distant from the clarity and truthfulness of the series of views painted in Naples for Carolina Murat and instead close, in sentiment, to Friedrich’s dramatic interpretation of the force of nature. The work can be compared to the Burrasca presso la grotta Foccia (Scweinfurt, Georg Schafer collection, inv. 2984) of very similar dimensions. Like no. 241, this canvas was also copied by Erminio Fanti in 1856 at the request of Maria Luisa of Bourbon.
Bibliography
Ricci 1896, p. 372;
Quintavalle A.O. 1939, p. 331;
Mecenatismo… 1974, pp. XXXV, 69;
Cirillo 1992a, p. 28;
Fornari Schianchi 1997b, pp. 105-106 n. 38.Restoration
1905 (G. Filippini).Marco Riccomini, in Fornari Schianchi L. (edited by), Galleria Nazionale di Parma. Catalogo delle opere. Il Settecento, Franco Maria Ricci, Milano, 2000.