ANTONIO STOM (attr. A)

(Venice, 1688 - 1734) Miraculous fishing Oil on panel, 34X54 cm Antonio Stom was trained in Venice in the family workshop, which during the second half of the seventeenth century had established itself by specializing in the production of battles. The first generation, formed by the brothers Matteo and Giovanni, was succeeded by a second generation run by Antonio, who carried on the workshop with equal success. He played a remarkable role, painting numerous views, fantasy landscapes and architectural capriccios with classical ruins on the edges of marine bays which, although influenced by the models of Eismann and Carlevarijs, present strongly original stylistic peculiarities. His pictorial language is in fact expressed with broad and fringed brushstrokes, with a greasy impasto, with a very recognizable palette and blob-like figures and as Morassi observed: 'What is certain is that even in the field of fantasy landscapes Antonio presents his own individuality, his own unmistakable character' (cf. Morassi, 1962, p. 294). Reference bibliography: A. Morassi, Preludio per Antonio Stom, detto il Tonino, in Pantheon, XX, 1962, pp. 291 ; 306 R. Pallucchini, La pittura nel Veneto. Il Settecento, Milan 1994, ad vocem