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Tue 18 Jun

PIER FRANCESCO CITTADINI - (Milan, 1616 - Bologna, 1681) Circe Oil on canvas, 88.5X71 cm. A pupil of Daniele Crespi in Milan, Cittadini moved to Bologna at the beginning of the fourth decade, where he continued his apprenticeship with Guido Reni until 1637. Oretti and Abbot Lanzi describe him by highlighting his multifaceted ability to express himself in different pictorial genres, producing with equal naturalness, fascinating portraits, still lifes and delicate landscapes, expertly availing himself of models of Flemish origin, employing compositional modules of Roman classicism and in still life, adopting the Lombard examples of Evaristo Baschenis and Bartolomeo Bettera, nevertheless managing to create compositions of remarkable originality. In 1645 the artist visited Rome, and between 1650 and 1652 he was engaged with his brother Charles and Jean Boulanger in decorating the Bacchus Room in the Ducal Palace in Sassuolo, painting flowers and fruits that frame medallions painted by the French painter. The same decorative motif is also employed in the 'Four Seasons,' now preserved in the Este Museum and the Pinacoteca Comunale in Bologna. His activity as a painter devoted to still life and landscape is accompanied by a conspicuous production of portraits, a genre where the Milanese origin emerges overbearingly in the realistic style of the Lombard tradition, without neglecting the elegance and sumptuousness of images in the Roman, Venetian and local traditions, represented by Cesare and Benedetto Gennari. In the portraits, the psychological investigation of the effigies is most striking, facilitated by minute observational skills, but also by the luministic rendering, which allows him an excellent description of the clothing. The painting under consideration testifies to all the qualities attributed to the artist, which accentuate the vital charge emanating from the young woman depicted, who, by the grass leaves of a potion within the glass bottle placed on the table, the wand and the book on which mysterious formulas are glimpsed, is recognized in the figure of Circe. The style and formal setting, on the other hand, reveal the clear influence of Guido Reni and Simone Cantarini, finding numerous similarities with other large life-size half-figures painted by the artist during the Fifth Decade and published by Massimo Pulini. The work is accompanied by a critical file by Massimo Pulini. Reference bibliography: M. Pulini Pier Francesco Cittadini, Saint Ursula in Quaderni del Barocco, Ariccia Museo di Palazzo Chigi, December 20, 2008 M. Pulini in Nature and Grace. Confidential collections of great antiquarians, exhibition catalog edited by A. Giovanardi, Cesena 2012, pp. 70-71 M. Pulini, The Living Natures of Pier Francesco Cittadini and a new identity for Carlo, in About Art online, May 17, 2020 M. Pulini, Pierfrancesco Cittadini landscapes, in About Art online, May 30, 2020 M. Pulini, Pier Francesco Cittadini The Making Great and the Sacred, in About Art online, July 2020

Estim. 5 000 - 8 000 EUR