Giovanni Michele Graneri

GIOVANNI MICHELE GRANERI
Oil on canvas, 63x79 cm; period frame.
This delightful painting depicts a joyful carnival scene featuring an adult and a child dressed as Pulcinella. The woman on the left, smiling and engaged in conversation with a fan in her hand, and the man on the right playing the violin could be the painter himself and his wife. Documents from 1747/1748 (see A. Cifani, F., Monetti, I Piaceri e le Grazie, Turin 1993, vol. 2, chap. 5, doc.) list Giovanni Michele Graneri among the members of the Royal Orchestra. A painting from around 1747, signed Graneri, depicts a couple: the man, very similar to the one in the painting under consideration here, could be the author of the self-portrait; The woman, whom we find depicted identically in many other paintings, could be his beloved wife, Francesca Canicoschi, whom he married in Turin in 1747 and who is portrayed here at a more advanced age, probably around 1755–60.