HERMAN VAN SWANEVELT (attr. A)

(Woerden, 1603 - Paris, 1655) Landscape with Cephalus and Procri, c. 1620 Oil on canvas, 72X95.7 cm. Provenance: Rome, private collection The stylistic features of the work suggest its Roman genesis and an artist of foreign origin certainly influenced by Claude Lorrain. These clues lead to recognizing as the author Herman van Swanevelt, documented in the Capitoline city from 1624. It should be recalled that in 1630 the artist resided with Claude Lorrain and that his known artistic debut yes dated beyond this date, while the understanding of the earlier production relies on a philological practice not always easy to pursue, which nevertheless does not invalidate the qualitative judgment on the painting, whose genesis finds in the works executed by the Lorrain in the third decade a sure point of reference. Similarities are also felt with the early works of Gaspard Dughet, particularly in the peculiar oxidation visible on the arboreal pieces. Reference bibliography: L. Salerno, Landscape Painters of the Seventeenth Century in Rome, II, Rome 1977, pp. 410-423; III, 1980, pp. 1085-1089 F. Cappelletti, Herman van Swanevelt, in La Pittura di Paesaggio in Italia. Il Seicento, edited by L. Trezzani, Milan 2004, pp. 368-371, with previous bibliography