Antonio Travi (Genova 1608 - 1665) cerchia

Circle of Antonio Travi, known as il Sestri (Sestri Ponente 1608 - Genoa 1665) Landscape with ruins and biblical scene First half of the 17th century oil on canvas, cm 82 x 121, with antique frame cm. 105 x 145 Complete descriptive and photographic details: www.ANTICHITACASTELBARCO.it The beautiful published painting, a broad landscape with architectural ruins, fully reflects the pictorial poetics of Antonio Travi (Sestri Ponente 1608 - Genoa 1665), the first landscape painter of the Genoese pictorial school; a poetics that remains constant throughout his fruitful career: from his beginnings, as a pupil of Bernardo Strozzi, until his death in 1668, when his flourishing workshop was flanked by numerous children and pupils. The imposing ruins, highlighted by an icy and bright luminosity, act as a backdrop to the biblical episode of the Flight into Egypt, with the Holy Family in the foreground. Observing the stylistic characteristics, we note the evidence of the brushstroke and the love for color typical of the master Strozzi, but also a clarity and precision typical of the Flemish artists active in Genoa, with a particular reference to the German Goffredo Waals, present in several collections of the Genoese aristocracy. The luminous and metaphysical scenographies of Wals translate into Travi's painting with a ruinist taste in a Ligurian key, through fast brushstrokes, dense with color and a fantastic naturalism accentuated by silvery luminosities. The canvas proposed reveals typical elements of his palette, such as the careful chromatic agreements and the studied inclusion of more vivid colors on the basic tones of earth and whites. As for the composition, his passionate investigation of the Italianate landscape remains almost unchanged over time, where the traces of time passing inexorably - the ancient architectures in ruins and the dilapidated houses - inhabit the scenarios of a silent nature. His works are always animated by small figures, who carry out their daily activities with simplicity: they take the flocks to drink or graze on the banks of the river. The same popular everyday life of his genre subjects also characterizes the paintings with sacred theme, such as the one in question, always dominated by an order that instills a sovereign peace to the environment. It should be emphasized, however, that the presence of man never appears decisive but rather, the true protagonist of his works is a nature that shows itself in all its simplicity. This canvas explains it well: almost a manifesto of his poetic vein, where the ruin is the true queen of the scene: the inexorable passing of time to which nothing can be opposed, if not Mother Nature, in her silent resistance made of blue skies eternally crossed by clouds, by streams of water that will always flow to the sea, by meadows and valleys, trees and stones. The quality that is perceived is that of a work of exquisite authorialship: see the reflections on the water, the descriptive detail of the ruin in every stone and even in the traces of decoration on the arches above, the brushstrokes of white that are flashes of light. Certificate of authenticity (FIMA)