Concertino

Alessandro Magnasco's paintings (Genoa 1667–1749) either find great appreciation or are completely disliked. His original, visionary style for the time is characterized by unreal, almost theatrical scenes, immersed in unsettling atmospheres; his figures are elongated, grotesque, often deformed, created with quick and nervous brushstrokes that give the subjects a strong emotional dynamism. His characters emerge from the (human) darkness “The figures in these paintings of his …; and are made with rare mastery, and composed of quick, and disdainful, but artful touches, launched with a certain skill, which is difficult to explain, nor can one well imagine who does not see it.” [R. Soprani, C.G. Ratti, Lives of Genoese painters, sculptors and architects, Volume II, Genoa 1797, p. 157] From this emerges an artistic personality deeply critical of the “hypocritical” society of his time, in which a growing secular and Enlightenment spirit was beginning to spread; Magnasco often makes satirical use of religious figures, monks or nuns, in his scenes, placed in ambiguous or even violent contexts, among tortures, penances and visions of a suffering, marginalized, abandoned humanity. Visually and atmospherically different are the paintings created in collaboration with the painter Antonio Francesco Peruzzini (Ancona 1643 – Milan 1724), a landscape painter specialized in views dominated by natural elements, trees shaken by the wind, stormy skies and seas, ruins and views; within these landscapes Magnasco inserted his small and unmistakable figures (religious, beggars, penitents, etc.). This small and unpublished canvas depicts a “concertino” set in a dark theatrical space, perhaps a cellar, dominated by brown and gloomy tones. The figures emerge in contrast thanks to rapid light lines that emphasize their movement; in the foreground a man plays an oboe and is accompanied by a small monkey sitting on a table playing a flute. A curious spectator observes the scene with a surprised expression. The monkey, like other small animals recurring in Magnasco's paintings (magpies, cats, etc.), often assumes a precise symbolic meaning; it in fact represents a negative allegory of man used in a satirical key, a subtle moral reflection aimed at emphasizing the vanity and hypocrisy of society. Minimum size, maximum enchantment!!! Dimensions: canvas 44x34.5 cm - frame 58x48.5 cm