Francesco D'Angiolo Art

The Great Fire of London in September 1666 was one of the greatest disasters in the city’s history. The City, with its wooden houses crowded together in narrow streets, was a natural fire risk, and predictions that London would burn down became a shocking reality. The fire began in a bakery in Pudding Lane, an area near the Thames teeming with warehouses and shops full of flammable materials, such as timber, oil, coal, pitch and turpentine. Inevitably the fire spread rapidly from this area into the City. Our painting depicts the impact of the fire on those who were caught in it and creates a very dramatic impression of what the fire was like. Closer inspection reveals a scene of chaos and panic with people running out of the gates. It shows Cripplegate in the north of the City, with St Giles without Cripplegate to its left, in flames (on the site of the present day Barbican). The painting probably represents the fire on the night of Tuesday 4 September, when four-fifths of the City was burning at once, including St Paul's Cathedral. Old St Paul’s can be seen to the right of the canvas, the medieval church with its thick stone walls, was considered a place of safety, but the building was covered in wooden scaffolding as it was in the midst of being restored by the then little known architect, Christopher Wren and caught fire. Our painting seems to depict a specific moment on the Tuesday night when the lead on St Paul’s caught fire and, as the diarist John Evelyn described: ‘the stones of Paul’s flew like grenades, the melting lead running down the streets in a stream and the very pavements glowing with the firey redness, so as no horse, nor man, was able to tread on them.’ Although the loss of life was minimal, some accounts record only sixteen perished, the magnitude of the property loss was shocking – some four hundred and thirty acres, about eighty per cent of the City proper was destroyed, including over thirteen thousand houses, eighty-nine churches, and fifty-two Guild Halls. Thousands were homeless and financially ruined. The Great Fire, and the subsequent fire of 1676, which destroyed over six hundred houses south of the Thames, changed the appearance of London forever. The one constructive outcome of the Great Fire was that the plague, which had devastated the population of London since 1665, diminished greatly, due to the mass death of the plague-carrying rats in the blaze. The fire was widely reported in eyewitness accounts, newspapers, letters and diaries. Samuel Pepys recorded climbing the steeple of Barking Church from which he viewed the destroyed City: ‘the saddest sight of desolation that I ever saw.’ There was an official enquiry into the causes of the fire, petitions to the King and Lord Mayor to rebuild, new legislation and building Acts. Naturally, the fire became a dramatic and extremely popular subject for painters and engravers. A group of works relatively closely related to the present picture have been traditionally ascribed to Jan Griffier...

Provenance: The Marchesi Strozzi, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence Sale, Christie’s, London, May 20, 1993, lot 315, as by Carl Borromaus Andreas Ruthart...

The Close of Day Italian School, early 18th century oil on canvas, unframed canvas: 17 x 22.5 inches provenance: private collection, France condition: very good and sound condition

Dutch/ Flemish School, early 1800's oil on canvas, framed framed: 19 x 24 inches canvas: 13.5 x 18.5 inches provenance: private collection, France condition: good and sound condition...

"A Dune Landscape with Figures Resting and a Couple on Horseback, a View of Nijmegen Cathedral Beyond" is a painting by Dutch Old Master painter Salomon van Ruysdael...

Ruisdael is regarded as the principal figure among Dutch landscape painters of the second half of the 17th century. His naturalistic compositions and style representing massive forms...

Dutch/English artist Abraham Hulk the Younger (1851-1922) is most known for landscapes of the British countryside. This work is one of a pair (the second work is also available by s...

Pair of oval paintings measuring 66 x 89 cm without frame and 90 x 115 cm with coeval frame depicting two gallant moments during a rest from hunting by painter Hendrik Van Limborch (...

Portrait of a young girl, full-length, wearing a blue silk gown, standing on a terrace beside a classical urn holding a branch with blossom. Attributed to John Riley...

Gaspare Diziani (Belluno, 1689 - Venice, 17 August 1767) Gilded, carved and sculpted wooden cassetta frame Expertise: Ugo Ruggeri The narration of our...

Jan Frans Soolmaker (Flanders 1635‑1685) Shepherd with Sheep, Cows and a Goat in a Landscape oil on relined canvas canvas size 56 x 53 cm frame i...

A capriccio with the Colosseum in Roma 17th century Italian school Circle of Viviano Codazzi (1604-1670) Oil on canvas Dimensions: h. 35.43 in, w. 51.18 in Modern 17th century style ...