Carlo Cignani

Oil on canvas painting, measuring 105 x 120 cm unframed and 125 x 140 cm with a beautiful carved frame, depicting the allegory of charity and love with a woman and three children, by the painter Carlo Cignani (Bologna 1628 - Forlì 1719). The painting is in good legible condition and depicts an iconographic subject that follows a widespread and tested pattern, placing the mother with the nursing child at the center of the composition, near two other children, one of whom, in this case, is sweetly sleeping in his cradle. We can note the value of our painting through its technical and executive characteristics; it is evident that we are faced with an interesting composition pervaded by a renewed formal essence that is in harmony with the pictorial experiments in use in those times, which refers to the painting of Carlo Cignani. The composition is very balanced and learnedly regulated in colors, of quality especially in the form, while the scene, represented here, is intelligently developed with never excessive colors; it undoubtedly falls within the theme par excellence of the paintings of that period, namely the so-called Baroque painting, of which the Bolognese school includes several excellent masters. This Charity is an emblematic work of Bolognese painting because we find that classic devotional character mixed with typical gestures as well as the compositional approach, the brilliance of the colors and the peculiar way of draping that we find in other Emilian works. In this painting we can see how both the figure of the woman and those of the children have a formal rigor and yet are painted with a casual executive fluency; sharp and varied ideas emerge with evidence and range from the wise luminous contrasts to the reinterpretation of tenebrism; very learned characters that make this woman enigmatic, dark but of attractive beauty. The sure trace of the almost drawn and strongly chiaroscuro brushstrokes reveals a graphic preparation and a cultured and composite pictorial conduct, with a particular gem: the representation of this landscape in the distant background, magical with a perspective game able to elaborate a love for nature from which we all come. The paintings and art objects published here are my exclusive property and consequently are always available to be viewed in person, by appointment, in my exhibition venues located in Sanremo and Brescia. The work, like all our objects, is sold accompanied by a FIMA photographic certificate of authenticity and lawful provenance; this document identifies the object, adding value to the article. We personally handle and organize the packing and shipping of works of art with insurance worldwide. Dr. Riccardo Moneghini Art Historian