887 - JAN MIEL or Jan van Bike Miel, called "Il Cavaliere Gioo" (Beveren 1599-Turin, 1664)

JAN MIEL or Jan van Bike Miel, called "Il Cavaliere Gioo" (Beveren 1599-Turin, 1664) Italian Baroque School, 17th Century - Oil on canvas. Signed lower right corner. Dimensions: 65 x 50 cm; 98 x 82 cm with frame. Formerly an important private collection. Genre scene with figures gathered against a rural architectural backdrop, enlivened by figures conversing, riding horses, and resting in the foreground. The composition combines landscape, architecture, and genre scenes with warm lighting and well-constructed spatial depth. Its subject matter and treatment link it to the Italian tradition of the 17th century. Documented in Rome at least from 1633, it belonged to the Bamboccianti or Bambochantes school, dedicated to creating small genre scenes that reflected the street life of Rome and its surroundings. A follower in this respect of the Dutch painter Pieter van Laer, some of whose paintings he copied, he was nevertheless, along with Michelangelo Cerquozzi, responsible for the evolution of the genre, emphasizing the development of narrative at the expense of landscape, as he primarily painted figures. He entered the Academy of St. Luke in Rome and, towards the end of his career, devoted himself to religious painting, leaving several works in Roman churches and participating in the decoration of the Quirinal Palace, where in 1656 he painted the fresco of the Crossing of the Red Sea. In 1658 he moved to Turin, where he worked for the Duke of Savoy and died in that city.