Francesco Aviani

Francesco Aviani (Venice, 25-11-1662 / 1715) att. Pair of paintings depicting Architectural Capriccios Oil on canvas, cm 135 x 183 without frame; cm 144 x 192 with frame price: contact by phone Expertise by Carlotta Venegoni in the clickable link at the bottom of the page. item accompanied by a certificate of authenticity The two large and valuable canvases depict two architectural capriccios, with glimpses of colonnades and arched buildings, animated by figures. The compositions are characterized by the harmony with which the painter introduces the sumptuous architectural monuments, the bodies of water, the buildings in the distance and the glimpses of landscape. A chromaticism played on the tones of brown and ocher dominates, standing out against the blue sky, marked by some vapor clouds. Also the inclusion of figures to liven up the architectural views is in balance with the whole. The architectural capriccio, an artistic genre that makes its way into Italian painting starting from the 17th century, is characterized by the representation of fantastic architectures or perspective inventions, sometimes combined with elements freely drawn from reality. The two canvases are an explanatory example of this type and present a notable artistic interest. The remarkable pictorial quality emerges both from the overall composition and from the way in which the artist describes the views with great attention to detail, to the highlights and to the refined, perfectly realistic, chiaroscuro. The same must be recognized for the figures: these are described with a skillful brushstroke, quick and rapid touches give back the dynamism of the moment that is caught, as if time had stopped to show and narrate what is happening. The painting on the right depicts a large Baroque building in stone and inlaid with marbles, on two floors, with a moving facade, large colonnades with Corinthian columns, a large portal with a staircase with wide steps, a string course balustrade, from which some figures overlook, and two equestrian monuments in bronze. The lavish building overlooks a large water basin, with a gushing fountain, around which some characters sit. In the background is described a white palace from which rises a tower crowned by a loggia structure in wrought iron. Even further away you can see a bridge and some architectural ruins behind which some mountainous reliefs fade towards the horizon. On the staircase a particular scene is described. The characters, dressed according to fashion, would seem to be part of a very precise story. A woman, in the shade of a parasol held by a servant, would seem to drive a man out of the palace, who, taken under the arm by two girls with a determined attitude, is led towards a boat. The scene could be identified with the biblical episode of the parable of the Prodigal Son (Gospel according to Luke 15:11-32), at the moment when the prodigal son is robbed and driven out by the prostitutes. The episode tells of a man with two sons. "The youngest said to his father: Father, give me the portion of the patrimony that is due to me. And the father divided the substances between them. After not many days, the youngest son, having gathered his things, left for a distant country and there squandered his substances with prostitutes and living dissolutely. When he had spent everything, in that country came a great famine and he began to find himself in need." Reduced to starvation, to survive he was forced to work as a swineherd. Therefore he meditated in his heart to go to his father and ask his forgiveness and to be welcomed again, even as a servant. While he is still on the road, however, the father saw him and ran to meet him, receiving him with open arms. Then he ordered his servants to prepare a great feast for the occasion, killing the "fattened calf" for this purpose. The firstborn did not understand why such treatment was reserved for his brother, and reminded the parent that he, who had always obeyed him, had never even received a kid to celebrate with friends. The father replied: "Son, you are always with me and all that is mine is yours; but it was necessary to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come back to life, was lost and has been found." The parable of the prodigal son was depicted several times in painting and the scene that is found most often is certainly that of the return home in the arms of his father. Among the many, we propose a painting by the famous painter Giovanni Paolo Pannini (or Panini) (Piacenza, 17 June 1691 - Rome, 21 October 1765) preserved at the Hallsborough Gallery in London. Quite rare, however, is the scene of the prodigal son driven out and robbed by the prostitutes. There is an engraving by Hans Collaert II (1561-1620) in which this moment is described in the background compared to the moment, narratively later, in which he is penitent among the pigs. The second painting, certainly pendant of the first, depicts a similar palace, with some characters overlooking the string course balustrade and other figures around the large four-lobed basin. In the foreground is described a monument with two large stone sculptures. In the distance some architectural elements and, beyond, the mountains are lost on the horizon. Studies related to the numerous painters of views and architectural capriccios, active in Italy, and the archival documents found, which could better clarify commissions, biographies and certain works, are scarce and sporadic. Therefore, many difficulties are still encountered in the reconstruction of a catalog of autograph works for each author. Through paintings present in private collections, in museums and paintings passed on the antique market, it is however possible to advance attributions in order to better delineate the various artistic figures. The style of the works here under study leads to a dating that runs between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with evident influences dictated by the perspectives of the Galli Bibiena brothers. The analysis of the architectures and the chromatic palette suggests that we are in the presence of a North Italian author and of Venetian area. Observing the decorations and volutes, the luminosity and the perspective arrangement in fact, we find several analogies with those used by the Vicenza painter Francesco Aviani, excellent in pictorial perspective and in architectural views. The biographical profile of Francesco Aviani (Vicenza, 1662-1715) was essentially traced in 1956 by Andreina Ballarin, then reinvestigated by Federica Spadotto in 2014 and by Giancarlo Sestieri in 2015. The certain documents on his life are scarce, as are the documented works. He was born in Venice, most likely on November 25, 1662, to Bernardo and a Maddalena whose surname is unknown, and was baptized on December 3, 1662. Between 1701 and 1703 he worked, together with his brother Marco, a sculptor, for the fresco decoration (now illegible) of the Chiericati villa in Soella (Vicenza). On October 16, 1703 he marries Isabella Carcano. On March 26, 1715 he makes a will and dies on April 3 of the same year, in Vicenza. The frescoes in the refectory of the sanctuary of Monte Berico in Vicenza, executed probably in 1708, are considered authentic works of Aviani; the canvases kept in the Civic Museum of Vicenza: Landscape with Lazarus and the rich Epulone; Christ among the doctors; The miraculous fishing, works not datable but with attribution supported by the style. Furthermore, the frescoes in the east and west corridors of the villa La Rotonda, near Vicenza; the fresco in the apse basin of the chapel of the Blessed Virgin of Help in the church of S. Croce, Vicenza, now destroyed; the frescoes of the central hall of villa Camerini in Montruglio (1714) and a canvas depicting a Porto Regio, lost, of which we have a print engraved by Dall'Acqua. From his works emerges the artistic background that animated the Venetian culture in the early eighteenth century. The scenographic grandeur with which Aviani treats the architectures also suggests an Emilian stay of the painter, in which he could have come into contact with the environment of the Bibiena. These contacts would be confirmed by the print of Cristoforo Dall'Acqua (Vicenza 1734-1787), Il porto regio, taken from a painting by Aviani. The print was part of a group of engravings, representing real buildings, which reproduced paintings by the Bibiena. In the eyes of Dall'Acqua, therefore, the work of Aviani did not appear extraneous among those of the Emilians. Inside the lavish architectural caprices, Aviani often depicts biblical scenes, in which the characters share the space and the narrative rhythm, along with figures drawn from scenes of everyday life, mindful of the Veronese and Bassanese heritage. Also in the works under study the author seems not to want to give up a biblical subject, although the purpose of the paintings appears to be clearly a scenographic-architectural staging within which the characters are relegated to the role of extras. From the examination of the architectural capriccios gathered under the name of Aviani, therefore, common elements emerge. The comparison between these works and the works in question highlights the similarities of the compositions. The imposing and scenographic architectures, of Veronese memory, are in fact equally characterized by the perspective-scenographic skill widespread in the Emilian quadratura and of Bibianese inspiration. You can observe in fact the spectacular architectures slender in the lower part, the loggias that create chiaroscuro games with the arches and the paired columns placed on massive bases and surmounted by projecting cornices. Significant also the comparison with two canvases with architectural caprices in a nocturnal vision attributed to Francesco Aviani. In the works of Aviani it is possible to find a certain knowledge of the Roman Codazziana current of the second half of the seventeenth century and its early eighteenth-century developments, developed with Locatelli, Pannini and the less known Domenico Roberti. Roberti have recently been attributed two works that present some compositional affinities with the canvases in question. The same can be advanced for a work, present on the antique market, attributed to Pietro Francesco Garola by Giancarlo Sestieri. These considerations are indicative of the taste widespread in Italy for this type of subject and, equally, of the attributive difficulties that arise due to the scarcity of certain documents on the artistic path of these artists who, although for a long time placed in the shade, today are back to being highly appreciated and re-evaluated by the cristica and the great collectors. Carlotta Venegoni