ALESSANDRO MAGNASCO

(Genoa, 1667 - 1749) Pilgrims praying near a chapel Oil on canvas, 146X118 cm Bibliography: A. Orlando, in The Charm of Beauty. Works of Art from the Terruzzi Collection, exhibition catalog edited by A. Scarpa, M. Lupo, Milan 2007, p. 155, no. II. 133; p. 439, no. II. 133 A. Scarpa, M. Lupo, Terruzzi Family Foundation. Villa Regina Margherita, Milan 2011, p. 78, fig. 4. Datable between 1725 and 1730, the canvas stands at the artist's maturity. The quality of execution manifests full autography to the master, not only for the figure pieces, but also for the bright and rapid writing that connotes the mountains in the distance and the trees that stand out for their essential sprezzatura, in keeping with the nervous invoice with which the author describes the protagonists. Therefore, it becomes essential to point out that Magnasco's figures cannot be judged as simplifications of an incipient baroque, and in this regard, the words of Orlandi are illuminating when he emphasizes how the painter 'succeeded admirably in picciole figures, but which give of the grandiose, for a certain move of resolute touches, and sped of great stain' (Cfr. P. A. Orlandi, L'Abecedario pittorico, Bologna, 1719, p. 58). We can best find this evidence in the canvas under examination, in which the fluid and expressive conduction gives energy and tension to every single detail, also supported by the exquisite conservation that brings out the thickness and chromatic preciousness of the brushstrokes. The overall outcome thus offers an admirable scenic setting, but one whose purposes are only partially decorative, testifying instead to the devotional practices of the time, which in turn were conditioned by the ongoing cultural debate on the religious education of the popular classes promoted by Ludovico Antonio Muratori and the literary Arcadia (Cf. Franchini Guelfi 1977, pp. 218-225; F. Porzio, pitture ridicole. scene di genere e cultura popolare, Milan 2008, pp. 117-141). That said, one glimpses and senses the congenital predominance of values and reason that Magnasco introduces from his beginnings, with a norm that seems not to reflect a customary vogue, as suggested for example by the canvases with a clear reference to Quakerism, the confrontation with the Jewish faith and the phenomenon of monasticism, revealing to us a dissenting artist, but a participant in a precise and advanced cultural environment (Cf. P. Vismara Chiappa, Religion and irreligion in Milan between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in Alessandro Magnasco 1667-1749, exhibition catalog edited by E. Camesasca and M. Bona Castellotti, Milan 1996, pp. 89-98). Reference bibliography: R. Soprani, C. G. Ratti, Vite de Pittori, Scultori ed Architetti Genovesi, In this second edition revised, augmented and enriched with notes by carlo Giuseppe Ratti, Genoa 1769, I, pp. 155-164 F. Franchini Guelfi, Alessandro Magnasco, Genoa 1977, ad vocem F. Franchini Guelfi, Alessandro Magnasco, Soncino 1991, pp. 50-51, n. 20 L. Muti, D. De Sarno Prignano, Alessandro Magnasco, Faenza 1994, p. 224, nn. 134, p. 395, fig. 187 Alessandro Magnasco 1667-1749, exhibition catalog edited by E. Camesasca and M. Bona Castellotti, Milan 1996, ad vocem