FRANCESCO AVIANI Venice, Italy (1662) / Vicenza, Italy (1715) "Architectural whim with vanitas"

Oil on canvas Francesco Aviani is a painter specialized in the representation of “Architectural Caprices”, with a very particular style that combines the tradition of perspective painters with landscapes of a more naturalistic nature. Although born in Venice, his work developed mainly in Vicenza, whose architecture, marked by Palladio, is reflected more or less explicitly in his works. Although there is no documentation in this regard, the connection between Aviani and the Bolognese architect and set designer Ferdinando Galli Bibiena (1657 – 1743) and other painters such as Giambattista Lambranzi (act.1667-1700) seems evident. The present work brings together all the characteristic elements of the painter's mature style, around 1710, comparable to the one preserved in the Museo Civico of Vicenza (91 x 134.5 cm, oil on canvas, inventory number A64). Among them the presidency of a very powerful architectural scenography, with a marked perspective, full of classical statues such as that of Hercules, which gives way to a more bucolic and naturalistic landscape, finished in cold tones to increase the sensation of depth of the landscape. Furthermore, the entire work is animated with animals and figures in different poses and attitudes, highlighting a small group on the left side, which mourns a corpse that is going to be thrown into the river. This group, watched by a statue of Crono on high, turns the work into an allegory of the passage of time, a vanitas in short. This is confirmed by an engraving by Ambrogio Orio (1737 – 1825) that represents this work, or a very similar version, since there are slight variants in the figures, which has the following inscription: “Vanitati pur di queste Opre famose,/Umano igegno; ma l'orgaglio abbassa/ Al sol pensier, che te co le tue cose/Il tempo struggitor urta e fracassa.” Measurements: 91 x 134 cm