Pietro Domenico Ollivero

Pietro Domenico Ollivero, Manius Annius Curius Dentatus Receives the Samnite Ambassadors, circa 1740 Oil on canvas, frame dimensions: cm W 52 x H 64.5 (2 cm thickness) Price: private negotiation Object accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and expertise from Carlotta Venegoni (downloadable at the bottom of the page) The work in question depicts the scene of Manius Annius Curius Dentatus receiving the Samnite ambassadors and was created by the famous Piedmontese painter Pietro Domenico Ollivero. The canvas, oval in shape, bears the plaque of the Caretto Gallery of Turin on the back with the authentication of Giorgio Caretto from 1965. The work was also published in "I Piaceri e le Grazie" by Arabella Cifani and Franco Monetti in 1993. The subject refers to the history of Rome and an episode narrated by the historian Valerius Maximus. Manius Curius Dentatus (Manius Curius Dentatus; 330 BC – 270 BC), one of the great Romans of the third century BC, was a consul of ancient Rome, known for ending the Samnite Wars. Elected consul in 290 BC together with Publius Cornelius Rufinus, in the same year he fought and won the Third War against the Samnites and their allies, thus ending a conflict that had lasted for 49 years. He definitively subdued the Sabines and the Greek army of Pyrrhus in the battle of Benevento. He represented the ideal prototype of the ancient Roman for the generations that followed as he avoided public honors; Cato the Censor, who collected his sayings, placed him among the great figures of universal history. For centuries after his death (which occurred in 270 BC while he was overseeing the construction of the second aqueduct of Rome) his military exploits were recounted and his moral rectitude was praised, as an example for all Romans. Ollivero, in the educated choice of the episode, illustrates the moment in which Manius Curius Dentatus is found in his dwelling, characterized by Roman walls, sitting by the fire, on a rustic bench while consuming his meal in a "ligneo catillo". On the left come ambassadors who offer him money and other valuables. The refusal of the Roman hero took place with the exclamation reported by Valerius Maximus: "narrate Sannitibus M. Curium malle locupletibus imperare quam ipsum fieri locupletem" (tell the Samnites that Manius Curius would prefer to rule over the rich rather than enrich himself). The love of little and poverty are characteristic elements of Ollivero's life and the choice of his subjects. The fact that he knew the work of Valerius Maximus confirms his articulated culture. The artist also represents the episode again with great vividness in a small picture, already on panel and now on canvas, pendant with a Sophonisba drinking poison. There are not many known works with historical subjects by Pietro Domenico Ollivero; however, the present one, dated to the 1740s, together with a few but significant other examples, demonstrate the author's ability to touch on even uncommon historical themes while maintaining great artistic quality, insinuating a new pictorial line in his vast panorama of subjects. Pietro Domenico Ollivero (Turin, August 1, 1679 – Turin, January 13, 1755) is unanimously recognized as a master in the field of Italian Bamboccianti painting of the first half of the eighteenth century. He is indeed credited with a faithful image of Turin society of the time thanks to his marked ability to delineate with grace and humanity the crowds and places of the eighteenth-century subalpine capital, giving us a precious testimony of the Piedmontese civilization of his time. Born in Turin in 1679, his surname appears in various spellings in documents. However, in the invoices, drawings and holographic will, the painter always signed himself Pietro Domenico Ollivero. In the 1705 Turin census he was registered as crippled and in many drawings and paintings he portrayed his own deformity with irony. According to sources, he was a pupil of the painter and architect Melchior Baldassarre Bianco and was strongly influenced by the Dutch and Flemish painters active in Turin in the second half of the 17th century: Melchior Hamers, Peter Mauritz Bolckman, Abraham Godyn, Jean-Baptiste Abret, Jean Miel. He was protected by King Vittorio Amedeo II of Savoy; however, Ollivero preferred to portray streets and squares of his city, studying above all the social characters of the humblest classes, to the more conventional themes proposed to him by the illustrious patron. He was much appreciated by the Savoyard nobility and the court who procured him continuous commissions until his last years of life. Among the most important commissions is that of Pietro Mellarède, Minister of the Interior of Vittorio Amedeo II, who owned 15 of his canvases, staggered between 1698 and the 1720s, still preserved in the castle of Betton Bettonnet in Savoy. In 1711 he had an already established workshop and works for the Venaria Reale (1714) and the Royal Palace of Turin (1716) are documented. In 1717 he appears for the first time among the confreres of the Confraternity of Ss. Maurizio and Lazzaro of Turin, of which he was a collaborator, emeritus advisor and benefactor until his death. In 1726 he was elected prior of the Academy of S. Luca of Turin. In these years of full maturity he was favored by the support of the first court painter Claudio Francesco Beaumont and the powerful minister Carlo Vincenzo Ferrero di Roasio marquis d'Ormea who commissioned him dozens of paintings for the residences of Cavoretto, Turin and Montaldo Torinese. He worked for the castle of Agliè (1737), for the Royal Palace of Turin, for the Palazzina di caccia di Stupinigi, for the castle of Guarene. The works Notturno con il falò di S. Giovanni Battista a Torino and a Processione alla Madonna del Pilone (both preserved in the Museo civico d’arte antica di Torino) date from 1743. In 1745 and 1746 he dedicated himself to the design of sets for the Regio theater of Turin; he also provided drawings of genre scenes and battles to the cabinetmaker Luigi Prinotto and other Turin cabinetmakers of the early eighteenth century .recall, in particular, the works for the hunting lodge of Stupinigi, for which he executed, from 1748 to May 1753, at least thirty paintings, partly intended for overdoors. On November 15, 1754 he signed the will. He died in Turin on January 13, 1755 and was buried, according to his instructions, in the Mauriziana basilica. Carlotta Venegoni