Alessandro Magnasco Explained

Alessandro Magnasco
Birth Date:February 4, 1667
Nationality:Italian
Field:Painting
Training:Valerio Castello, Filippo Abbiati
Movement:Baroque
Death Place:Genoa, Republic of Genoa
Birth Place:Genoa, Republic of Genoa

Alessandro Magnasco (February 4, 1667 – March 12, 1749), also known as il Lissandrino, was an Italian late-Baroque painter active mostly in Milan and Genoa. He is best known for stylized, fantastic, often phantasmagoric genre or landscape scenes. Magnasco's distinctive style is characterized by fragmented forms rendered with swift brushstrokes and darting flashes of light.[1]

Life

Born in Genoa to a minor artist, Stefano Magnasco, he apprenticed with Valerio Castello, and finally with Filippo Abbiati (1640–1715) in Milan. Except for 1703–09 (or 1709–11)[2] when working in Florence for the Grand Duke Cosimo III, Magnasco labored in Milan until 1735, when he returned to his native Genoa. Magnasco often collaborated with placing figures in the landscapes of Tavella and the ruins of Clemente Spera in Milan.

Mature style

After 1710, Magnasco excelled in producing small, hypochromatic canvases with eerie and gloomy landscapes and ruins, or crowded interiors peopled with small, often lambent and cartoonishly elongated characters. The people in his paintings were often nearly liquefacted beggars dressed in tatters, rendered in flickering, nervous brushstrokes. Often they deal with unusual subjects such as synagogue services, Quaker meetings, robbers' gatherings, catastrophes, and interrogations by the Inquisition. His sentiments regarding these subjects are generally unclear.[2]

A century later he would be described as a "romantic painter: who painted with candid touches, and ingenious expressiveness, little figures in Gothic churches; or in solitude, hermits and monks; or scoundrels assembled in town squares; soldiers in barracks".[3] The art historian and critic Luigi Lanzi described him as the Cerquozzi of his school; thereby signaling him into the circle of followers of the Bamboccianti. He indicates that Magnasco had "figures scarcely more than a span large ... painted with humor and delight", but not as if this effect had been the intention of the painter. Lanzi says these eccentric pieces were favored by the Grand Duke Giovanni Gastone Medici of Florence.[4] Magnasco also found contemporary patronage for his work among prominent families and collectors of Milan, for example the Arese and Casnedi families.[5] This series of patrons underscores the fact that Magnasco was more esteemed by outsiders than by his fellow Genoese; as Lanzi noted, "his bold touch, though joined to a noble conception and to correct drawing, did not attract in Genoa, because it is far removed from the finish and union of tints which (Genoese) masters followed."[6] In the twentieth century, Rudolf Wittkower derided him as "solitary, tense, strange, mystic, ecstatic, grotesque, and out of touch with the triumphal course of the Venetian school" from 1710 onward.[2]

Origins of his style

The influences on his work are obscure. Some suspect the influence of the loose painterly style of his Venetian contemporary Sebastiano Ricci (1659–1734), the Genoese Domenico Piola (1627–1703) and Gregorio de Ferrari, although the most prominent of the three, Ricci, painted in a more monumental and mythic style, and these artists may in fact have been influenced by Magnasco. Magnasco was likely influenced by Milanese il Morazzone (1573–1626) in the emotional quality of his work. Some of his canvases (see ill. (q.)) recall Salvator Rosa's romantic sea-lashed landscapes, and his affinity for paintings of brigands. The diminutive scale of Magnasco's figures relative to the landscape is comparable to Claude Lorraine's more airy depictions. While his use of figures of ragged beggars has been compared with Giuseppe Maria Crespi's genre style, Crespi's figures are larger, more distinct, and individual, and it is possible that Crespi himself may have influenced Magnasco. Others point to the influences of late Baroque Italian genre painters, the Roman Bamboccianti, and in his exotic scenography, the well-disseminated engravings of the Frenchman Callot.

Legacy

Magnasco's work may have influenced Marco Ricci, Giuseppe Bazzani, Francesco Maffei, and the famed painters de tocco (by touch) Gianantonio and Francesco Guardi in Venice.

His depictions of torture in The Inquisition (or perhaps named Interrogations in a Jail) are an atypical subject for Italian baroque paintings, as were his depictions of the religious ceremonies of Jews and Quakers. Yet it remains unsolved, according to Wittkower, "how much quietism or criticism or farce went into the making of his pictures".[7]

Selected works

PaintingDatesSiteLink
Gathering of Quakers1695Uffizi, Florence
Theodosius Repulsed from Church by St. Ambrose1700-10Art Institute of Chicago
Christ attended by angelsc. 1705Museo del Prado, Madridhttps://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/christ-attended-by-angels/f399dd10-3e60-4561-aaf6-e5eaa62cac2e
Christ and Samaritan Woman1705-10Getty Museum, Los Angeleshttps://web.archive.org/web/20060918003806/http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=712
Noli Me Tangere1705-10ibid https://web.archive.org/web/20060918003812/http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=713
The Hunting Scene1710Wadsworth Atheneum
Muletrain and Castle1710Louvrehttp://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=1743
Bacchanalian Scene 1710sHermitage Museumhttps://web.archive.org/web/20050315033717/http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/m/magnasco/1bacchan.html
Halt of the Brigands 1710sibid https://web.archive.org/web/20050315033738/http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/m/magnasco/2brigand.html
Landscape with Washerwomen1710-20University of Michigan Museum of Arthttp://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1960-sl-2.127/1960_2.127.jpg
The Inquisition or Interrogations in a Jail 1710-20Kunsthistorisches Museumhttp://www.wga.hu/art/m/magnasco/int_jail.jpg
The Temptation of Saint Anthony 1710-20Louvrehttp://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=1741
Landscape with Shepherdsc. 1710-30São Paulo Museum of Art, São Paulohttp://www.masp.art.br
Pulcinella singing with Family and Lute Player1710-35Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolinahttps://web.archive.org/web/20070928024243/http://www.kressfoundation.org/cgi-bin/kressorg/2templateb.cgi?17&Alessandro+Magnasco,+called+Il+Lissandrino&works&0
Three Camaldolite Monks at Prayer 1713-14Rijksmuseumhttps://web.archive.org/web/20060518133701/http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/m/magnasco/monks1.html
Three Capuchin Friars Meditating in their Hermitage 1713-14ibidhttps://web.archive.org/web/20050315034152/http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/m/magnasco/monks2.html
Christ Adored by Two Nunsc. 1715Accademiahttps://web.archive.org/web/20050315033833/http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/m/magnasco/c_adored.html
The Sack of a City1719-25Brukenthal National Museum, Abbey of Seitenstetten, Sibiu
Satire of Nobleman in Misery 1719-25Detroit Institute of Artshttps://web.archive.org/web/20060328074451/http://www.dia.org/the_collection/overview/viewobject.asp?objectid=53142
The painter's workshopc. 1720Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madridhttps://www.academiacolecciones.com/pinturas/inventario.php?id=1400
Bacchanale1720-30The Getty Center in Los Angeleshttps://web.archive.org/web/20060918001923/http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=739
Triumph of Venus1720-30ibid https://web.archive.org/web/20060918003809/http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=740
Interior with Monks1725Norton Simon Museumhttp://www.nortonsimon.org/collections/browse_title.php?id=F.1973.34.1.P
Gamblers, Soldiers and Vagabonds1720-30Staatsgalerie Stuttgarthttps://web.archive.org/web/20090430065307/http://staatsgalerie.de/digitalerkatalog/
Supper of Pulcinella & Colombina1725-30North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleighhttps://web.archive.org/web/20070928024225/http://www.kressfoundation.org/cgi-bin/kressorg/2templateb.cgi?17&Alessandro+Magnasco&works&3
The Synagogue1725-30Cleveland Museum of Art
Consecration of a Franciscan Friar c. 1730El Paso Museum of Art, Texashttps://web.archive.org/web/20070928024156/http://www.kressfoundation.org/cgi-bin/kressorg/2templateb.cgi?17&Alessandro+Magnasco&works&5
Burial of a Franciscan Friar c. 1730El Paso Museum of Arthttps://web.archive.org/web/20070928024156/http://www.kressfoundation.org/cgi-bin/kressorg/2templateb.cgi?17&Alessandro+Magnasco&works&5
Monks chapter1730-1740Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madridhttps://www.academiacolecciones.com/pinturas/inventario.php?id=0622
Sacrilegious Robbery 1731intended for church of Siziano, now in Quadreria Arcivescovile, Milanhttps://web.archive.org/web/20060518133629/http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/m/magnasco/robbery.html
Exorcism of the Wavesafter 1735Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, New Yorkhttp://magart.rochester.edu/Obj5066$2122
Landscape with Travelers1735-1740New Orleans Museum of Art
The Observant Friars in the Refectory1736-37Museo Civico di Bassano del Grappahttps://web.archive.org/web/20060518133746/http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/m/magnasco/refector.html
Figures Before a Stormy Seaca. 1740Honolulu Museum of Art
The Entrance to a HospitalMuzeul des Arta, Bucharest
Landscape with Camaldolese friarsMuseo Giannetino Luxora, Genoahttp://www.museoluxoro.it/frameset.html?http://www.museoluxoro.it/collezioni.asp
The Marriage BanquetLouvre
Praying MonksMuseum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghenthttps://web.archive.org/web/20050315034137/http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/m/magnasco/prayingm.html
Reception in a GardenPalazzo Bianco, Genoa
SeashoreHermitage Museumhttp://www.wga.hu/html/m/magnasco/seashore.html
Supper at EmmausConvent S. Francesco in Albaro, Genoa
The Tame MagpieMetropolitan Museumhttps://web.archive.org/web/20080103215948/http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_Of_Art/viewOnezoom.asp?dep=11&zoomFlag=0&viewmode=1&item=1984%2E191
Two Hermits in ForestLouvrehttp://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=1744
A Hermit in the DesertLázaro Galdiano Museum, Madridhttp://ceres.mcu.es/pages/ResultSearch?txtSimpleSearch=Ermita%F1o%20en%20el%20desierto&simpleSearch=0&hipertextSearch=1&search=simple&MuseumsSearch=&MuseumsRolSearch=1&listaMuseos=null
Untitledhttp://www.museopalazzobianco.it/frameset.htm?http://www.museopalazzobianco.it/tiposala.asp?paramsala=20&piano=2

References

Notes and References

  1. http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5649628 Alessandro Magnasco, called il Lissandrino (Genoa 1667-1749), Saint Joseph's dream
  2. Wittkower 1993, p. 478
  3. https://books.google.com/books?id=OQhTAAAAcAAJ Dizionario geografico-storico-statistico-commerciale degli stati del Re di Sardegna
  4. Book: Lanzi, Luigi. 1847. History of Painting in Italy; From the Period of the Revival of the Fine Arts to the End of the Eighteenth Century. III. . Henry G. Bohn. London . Luigi Lanzi. 287.
  5. Spike 1986, p. 87.
  6. Lanzi, p. 287.
  7. Wittkower, 1993, p. 478

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