XVIIth Century, Bambocciante School, Genre Scene

17th century, Bambocciante school
Genre scene
Oil on canvas, 73 x 47 cm
With frame 91 x 55 cm

The canvas in question is to be brought back from the hand of a Flemish painter with Bambocciante taste, active in Rome in the 17th century. The ancestor of this particular and fascinating pictorial taste was Peter van Laer (Haarlem, 1599 - 1642) whose presence in Rome is documented from 1625 to 1639; in the Capitoline city his painting had fortune and success and he was also a member of the Bentvueghels, an association which in Rome brought together most of the Flemish artists active in the city, known in particular for its anti-academic leanings and its particular initiation rituals. Traveling to Italy had become a constant and a rite of passage for Flemish artists since the publication in 1604 of Karel van Mander Schilder-boeck's book, which describes the lives of more than 250 painters, present and past and provides the theoretical basis for start painting. It was a difficult journey, which the artists had to meet the expenses of with their talent and the sale of their works along the way. For many it would have been difficult to arrive and many would have chosen not to return home. The painting of the bamboccianti focuses on genre scenes of everyday life, with the representation of characters who occupy a low role in the social scale; among his works, there is no lack of representations. The canvas appears to be characterized by a learned composition, attentive to the perspective and the quality of the drawing, not without a research aiming at the deformation of the characters. The colors are warm, characterized by brown tones that materialize with a dense and present rendering, with a wide and lively brushstroke.