MARCANTONIO FRANCESCHINI

(Bologna, 1648 - 1729) Madonna and Child Oil on canvas, 87X74 cm The work is a relevant example of Marcantonio Franceschini's painting and it was painted during the first years of the 18th century, when the classicist sensibility of the author reached very refined levels, without forgetting those lexical elements taken from the early 17th century culture of Domenichino and Francesco Albani. The pictorial texture, the analysis of the forms, the scenic setting, the typology of the faces and some Morellian details, find clear points of contact and comparison with the best production of the artist, who proved to be one of the best interpreters of Felsine art between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The face of the Virgin can be compared with the Madonna leggente in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna, datable to around 1710 (cf. Miller, pp. 108; 109, no. 7), but even more so with the Madonna and Child in the Durazzo Pallavicini collection in Genoa which, datable to around 1700, offers a precise chronological indication. Here, too, we can observe the same porcelain smoothness reminiscent of Reni and an impeccable formal balance. Reference bibliography: D. C. Miller, Marcantonio Franceschini, Turin 2001, pp. 2 218, no. 111