Church interior: the arrest of the Nun of Monza, Circle of Giovanni Migliara (1785 - 1837)

Circle of Giovanni Migliara (Alessandria, 1785 - Milan, 1837) Church Interior: The Arrest of the Nun of Monza Oil on canvas, 79 x 61 cm - with frame 104 x 85 cm The painting under examination is to be attributed, by subject and definition, to a painter from the circle of Giovanni Migliara (1785 - 1837), a painter originally from Alessandria. His training was particular and eclectic. Son of a cabinet maker, he apprenticed in Milan with the sculptor Luigi Zuccoli between 1801-02. In the same period, he attended the Brera Academy and from 1804 he also worked as a set designer in the studio of Gaspare Galliari. Some of his scenographic studies, preserved at the Pinacoteca of Alessandria or the Galleria d'Arte Moderna of Turin, show influences of Galliari, heir to the Juvarrian tradition, to which he added picturesque traits, in a neoclassical style. In the same years, he began to dedicate himself more and more to painting, creating small-format works. In 1812 he presented four views of Milan and two ideal compositions at the Brera exhibition, which immediately met with considerable success. His first production draws inspiration from the Venetian tastes of the eighteenth century. In 1813 he published A Treatise on Descriptive Geometry. From 1815 he also became interested in engraving, lithography and the practice of illustration. In 1817 he exhibited three works at the Paris Salon and presented a monastic interior for the first time at Brera, a subject that would be very successful and that he would take up several times. Between the second and third decades of the nineteenth century, he established himself in the cultural environment of Romantic Milan, with a new genre consisting of the perspective representation of urban monuments and monumental interiors, of small dimensions. A particularly appreciated painter, he refused the chair of Brera in 1825, due to too many commitments, and in 1833 he was appointed genre painter of the King of Sardinia. Migliara straddles Neoclassicism and Romanticism. His taste, in fact, moderately neoclassical, does not prevent him from anticipating romantic elements, creating in his works an original and particular genre of painting. These small paintings "to be looked at closely" guaranteed the artist, from the beginning, the favor of critics and a cultured public who collected them as small precious objects, intended to furnish studies and cabinets. Migliara, in his works, loved to introduce some clues that would allow the public to identify the place represented, without renouncing the insertion of details from his imagination. The refined rendering of the light in the painting contributes to restoring the atmosphere of the environment, all played on the intense contrast between the large shaded areas in the foreground and those hit by the rays of sun that filter through the round openings of the dome and above all from the lunette on the right. The refined miniaturistic technique, the elegant luminescence and the subject that distinguish the work are derived from the Flemish artistic tradition, mediated through more modern stylistic features. One of his convent interiors is preserved at the Gallerie d'Italia in Milan, while a view of the Cloister of the Certosa is preserved at the Museo di Santa Giulia in Brescia. The choice to represent a particular moment of action, the arrest of the Nun of Monza, makes the canvas even more interesting. Marianna de Leyva (1575 - 1650), the Nun of Monza, protagonist of a famous scandal at the beginning of the seventeenth century, was made famous by Alessandro Manzoni's The Betrothed. Orphaned of her mother, she was forced at the age of thirteen to enter the monastery of Santa Margherita in Monza. Thanks also to the complicity of some nuns, following a clandestine relationship with Gian Paolo Osio, whose house overlooked the gardens of the monastery, she had two children. When a nun seemed intent on revealing everything, Osio killed her, along with another witness. Cardinal Federico Borromeo, however, launched an investigation that led to the arrest of the nun and her confession. She was sentenced to live in a walled cell, less than four square meters in size. In 1622, after fourteen years spent like this, Cardinal Borromeo granted her forgiveness; having returned to being a nun, she chose to stay with the Convertite di Santa Valeria, in Milan, where she had spent her sentence. With Ars Antiqua it is possible to spread all amounts up to € 5,000 at ZERO RATE, for a total of 12 INSTALLMENTS. Ex. Tot. € 4,500 = Monthly installment € 375 for 12 months. Ex. Tot. € 3,600 = Monthly installment € 720 for 5 months. For amounts exceeding € 5,000 or for a longer spread over time (over 12 installments), we can provide a customized payment. Contact us directly to get the best quote. TV SHOWS - WEDNESDAY 21.00 - 24.00 Dig.terr. 126 – Sky 861 - 937 – SUNDAY 17.00 – 21.00 Dig.terr. 126 – Sky 861 - 937 – Streaming on our website www.arsantiquasrl.com and on our social networks Facebook and Youtube