Alessandro Magnasco Preaching to the Friars Alessandro... Lot 142

Alessandro Magnasco Preaching to the Friars Alessandro Magnasco is undoubtedly one of the most relevant and innovative protagonists of the Italian art scene in the second half of the 17th century. The vibrant and highly expressive style, characterized by rapid, angular brushstrokes, darting flashes of light and nervous splotchy drafts of color, departs from the vivid chroma found in the works of the contemporary Genoese masters, revealing a chiaroscuro emphasis typical of Lombard art, with which Magnasco came into contact during his apprenticeship in Milan at the workshop of Filippo Abbiati. All these elements are perfectly reflected within the canvas presented here, which, in terms of quality and size, can be counted among the artist's masterpieces. The subject depicted, as also testified by biographer Carlo Giuseppe Ratti, is one of the most treated by Magnasco and is strongly linked to the social context of the time, particularly with regard to the fierce debate on religious orders. Accused of corruption, the latter were in fact protagonists during those years of a wave of reforms based on the evangelical ideals of spirituality and poverty, promoting a simple lifestyle based on work and prayer, and of which the artist gives us a faithful but highly suggestive image within his works. Cm 145X116 oil on canvas Alessandro Magnasco is undoubtedly one of the most relevant and innovative protagonists of the Italian artistic scene in the second half of the seventeenth century. His vibrant and highly expressive style, characterized by rapid, angular brushstrokes, darting flashes of light and nervous splotchy drafts of color, departs from the vivid chroma found in the works of the coeval Genoese masters, revealing a chiaroscuro emphasis typical of Lombard art, with which Magnasco came into contact during his apprenticeship in Milan at the workshop of Filippo Abbiati. All these elements are perfectly reflected within the canvas presented here, which, in terms of quality and size, can be counted among the artist's masterpieces. The subject depicted, as also testified by biographer Carlo Giuseppe Ratti, is one of the most treated by Magnasco and is strongly linked to the social context of the time, particularly with regard to the fierce debate on religious orders. Accused of corruption, the latter were in fact protagonists during those years of a wave of reforms based on the evangelical ideals of spirituality and poverty, promoting a simple lifestyle based on work and prayer, and of which the artist gives us a faithful but highly suggestive image within his works.