CHRISTIAN REDER detto MONSU LEANDRO

(Leipzig, 1656 - Rome, 1729) Pair of battles Oil on canvas, 36.5X65 cm (2) The canvases can be dated to the painter's maturity, when his art was modulated and developed in an eighteenth-century key, with the suggestions dictated by Burgundy fading and the compositions becoming more narrative. This occurs partly because of the historical distance from the bloody wars of the 17th century, which were undoubtedly an inspiration, but also because of the collectors' diffusion of these paintings in an ornamental key. This change in taste is, for example, well explained by Zeri in an illuminating essay of 1986 (cf. F. Zeri, La battaglia nella pittura del XVII e XVIII secolo, Parma 1994, pp. 9 ; 27), in which the scholar demonstrates how in the course of the Baroque age the iconography of the events of arms became increasingly detached from the real events, assuming decorative values. In a few words, it becomes free from precise historical, iconographic or symbolic references. Reference bibliography: G. Sestieri, I Pittori di Battaglie, Rome 1999, p. 406 ; 419