Scuola Lombarda, Seconda metà del XIX secolo

Lombard School, Second half of the 19th century Agar and Ishmael Oil on canvas, 92 x 74 cm – Antique frame 125 x 108 cm The examined canvas shows a clear adherence to the principles of historical classicism and 19th-century academic art, with a balanced composition and detailed attention to anatomical rendering and drapery. The use of color, the desert landscape, and the soft lighting refer to the Lombard pictorial tradition and the interpretations provided by Francesco Hayez (1791 – 1882). Hayez's painting was particularly emblematic. Approaching the biblical, mythological, and historical repertoire, Hayez's style was very close to Romantic sensibility, reinterpreted, however, in the light of a markedly classicizing and academic climate. This equidistance between classicism and romanticism, the two dichotomous positions of that vehement diatribe that marked the 19th century, played a decisive role in the fortune of Hayez’s production, which in this way exerted an authoritative influence on 19th-century painting and Italian aesthetic taste. A significant comparison can be made with works by Hayez such as Tamar and Judah (1847, Collection of the Civic Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art - Castello di Masnago) and other representations of biblical heroines he painted (Bathsheba at the bath, Rebecca, Susanna, Lot and his daughters, as well as numerous versions of odalisques and bathers) in which a similar scenographic setting and a profound expressive intensity emerge. The pathos and emphasis on the drama of the narrative recall his compositions, from which the painter working here must have drawn inspiration, where the female figure is often portrayed with great dignity and emotional strength. The setting and pictorial language therefore suggest a link with Lombard artists of the period, known for their narrative sensibility and the ability to translate historical and religious subjects into images of strong emotional impact. The work could be placed in the romantic vein of the second half of the nineteenth century, when the theme of suffering and biblical redemption was treated with strong pathos and theatrical representation. The painting represents the biblical episode of Hagar and Ishmael in the desert, taken from the Book of Genesis (21:14-19). Hagar, an Egyptian slave and mother of Abraham's firstborn son, Ishmael, was driven out with her son on Sarah's orders. Wandering in the Beersheba desert, mother and son suffered thirst until God heard Ishmael's cry and sent an angel to save the woman and child, pointing out a well of water. The work emphasizes the pathos of the scene through the contrast between the erect maternal figure, holding an amphora (symbol of hope and survival), and the young Ishmael, bent over in a position of weariness and suffering. The arid landscape and earthy colors accentuate the drama of the narrative. Hagar's gesture, with her arm raised, seems to indicate the desperate search for divine help, underlining the theme of providence and miraculous salvation. As in the representations of biblical heroines by Hayez such as Tamar, Rebecca and Ruth, Hagar is depicted with an aura of nobility and inner strength, characteristics that in 19th-century romantic art served to exalt female courage and suffering. The choice of subject and its pictorial rendering suggest a reading in a sentimental and moralizing key, typical of 19th-century Lombard historical painting.