19th Century Four Italian Oil On Panel Paintings With Allegory Of The Four Elements

19th Century Four italian Oil on panel Allegory of the four elements
Sizes with frame: cm H 34,5 x L 25; only the table: cm H 29 x L 20,5

The funny oil on panel, by an artist active in Piedmont, in the north of Italy, in the first half of the 19th century, represent the allegory of the four elements of the Earth.
They are inspired by the group of four etching prints of about 1730, made to a design by Rococo painter Jacopo Amigoni (Naples 1682- Paris 1752) and engraved in Venice by Joseph Wagner (Gestratz, 1706 – Venice, 1780).
Each painting represents the allegory of an element: the earth, the fire, the water and the air.
The land is represented by a young couple in a rural environment; the young man, accompanied by a dog, offers a bouquet of flowers to the girl. The fire is represented by a burning building from which flees the couple who were preparing for a picnic, as suggested by the wicker basket with pottery that the boy supports. The element of water is remembered by fishing: while a young woman is busy fishing, a boy gives her a gift of fish caught with a net. The air is symbolically remembered by the flight of birds: in the painting you see a young man on a ladder resting on a tree takes a bird and gently hands it to the girl, ready to welcome him in the fabric of her dress.
The four paintings reproduce the archaic taste widespread in the eighteenth century, in which the classic and simple pastoral poetry was celebrated, through the recovery of the myth of Arcadia. The Earth becomes a source of peace and serenity, a place of the soul, in which man lives in perfect harmony with Nature. The world of contemporary living rooms moves into small woods and rural environments, set by shepherds and shepherds.
The works, in a good state of conservation, are characterized by a marked decoration and pleasantness of the subject.