Giovanni Rivalta (Faenza, 1756 – 1832)

Giovanni Rivalta (Faenza, 1756 – 1832) Vase of flowers with birds - Vase of flowers with grapes (2) Oil on glass, 24 x 28 cm With frame, 36 x 30 cm Critical note by Prof. Alessandro Agresti These two exquisite works are truly rarities in the field of still life: in fact, in the 18th century, the technique of oil on glass became quite rare after having found its peak in the works of Carlo Maratti and the Stanchi family in the well-known cycles of Palazzo Colonna and Palazzo Borghese in Rome; this technique was usually used, however, for high-ranking commissions, on large surfaces, for buildings of primary importance. It is much rarer to find similar works, of these dimensions, especially in the late 18th century: and the more than satisfactory state of conservation is surprising, thanks to which we can appreciate the skill and subtleties of the brush in forming these two very pleasant images. I therefore believe that the most pertinent name for our glasses is that of Giovanni Rivalta, from Faenza, and that they are early examples of his production. In fact, on the back of one of the two protective panels for the fragile support we find the period inscription 'Vicenza 1780' which I believe is pertinent to the entry into some collection in that city of our paintings or, perhaps, precisely to their execution in the Venetian town. On the other hand, among the few biographical details we know of Rivalta, we know that he participated in the annual Brera competitions in 1820, which would suggest study trips, if not work, even if at the moment his activity is documented only in Faenza. Nothing prevents him from having sent his works to other parts of Italy as well. The first known still lifes are those signed and dated 1803 in the Pinacoteca of Rimini which also provide us with cultural coordinates to better understand the beginnings of this petit maître. The setting is inspired by Magini's prototypes, but with an even more abstracting intent: the table is placed on the foreground, almost in section, to create a filter between real space and pictorial space, contributing to the creation of a convincing spatial depth, in search of a perceptive illusionism. In two other still lifes dated 1815 in a private collection in Rimini there is not only a broadening of the repertoire, with the depiction of fruits and leaves: also in the use of tempera on parchment or paper there is in my opinion an anti-naturalistic intent, in the creation of a composition that can also be interpreted as a decoration, an element to complete the furniture of a dwelling like a frieze; rightly the critics have placed these tests in relation to Giani and his circle, both in the inspiration from the painting of the sixteenth century and in overcoming the painting intended as mere mimesis and illusion of reality. In those considered the works of the last years as this Still Life with hen of the Pinacoteca of Faenza is a tired retrieve formulas and stylisms already used decades before, with a result also a bit 'grotesque and comic: lacks the bite of the works that we have analyzed, the "delicate purism" using the words of Luigi Salerno. In addition to comparisons with the works illustrated here, where we can easily find broad similarities with the oils on glass sub judice, I propose to compare our still lifes both with this Still Life with fruit and with this Grapes in a ceramic plate where we find the same strenuous archaism, the thin and incisive contour line that concludes the color laid out in body for smooth and compact surfaces, almost without nuances, the same suspended, silent atmospheres, with the image that emerges from the dark, indistinct background through a grazing light, cold and analytical, similar to that which we find in the illustrations of certain treatises of botany. It is really important that our works are dated 1780: they are therefore the first of Rivalta's catalog, the only ones currently known executed with the particular oil on glass technique - our artist often used alternative techniques to oil, such as tempera on both paper and parchment - and testify, if not a trip, contacts with the Veneto that until now were unknown.