Alessandro Magnasco

(Genova, 1667 - 1749)

Magnasco defined himself as "Genoese by birth, Milanese by choice", in fact the Lombard city welcomed him for several years and here he shaped and defined his pictorial style. This painting brings together the main characteristics of the artistic production of Magnasco's second stay in Milan. The dark but rich color palette, the swirling brushstrokes and the small human figures hidden among the shadows help to make these works theatrical, original and recognisable. Lissandrino shows the magnificence of nature and the power it has over men, making them only small and silent actors who timidly coexist with it. The vegetation depicted in the painting under analysis presents several consonances with that of the work Landscape with peasants, preserved at The National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo and also signed by Magnasco.

As well as the rapid and virtuosic rendering of the landscape represented in the work in question which reveals the typical touch of Lissandrino can be compared with another work by the Genoese artist, Landscape with hermit, sold at auction in December 2022 at the Cambi Auction House.</ div>