FRANCESCO UNTERPERGER Lot n° 16

(Cavalese, 1706 - 1766) Praying Madonna Oil on oval canvas applied to panel, 29.7X24 cm. Provenance: Private collection Bibliography: E. Mich, New works by Francesco Unterperger, forthcoming in Studi trentini. Art A pupil of his older brother Michelangelo (Cavalese, 1695 ; Vienna, 1758), Francesco belonged to a family of artists originally from the Pustertal valley who were active during the 18th century in Trentino-South Tyrol and Austria. The painter achieved his own autonomy during the third decade when he produced canvases dedicated to the life of St. Clare for the convent of the Poor Clares in Bressanone, the altarpiece of St. Anthony the Abbot for the parish church of Cavalese in 1734, and canvases with St. John of Nepomuk and St. George for the parish church of Sterzing (1736). However, in 1740 he moved to Venice, frequenting the workshop of Giovanni Battista Pittoni until 1745, and in these years his works manifest the influence of the famous master and the suggestions of Sebastiano Ricci, expressing a greater chromatic vivacity and drafts with denser impasti. The execution of the canvas presented here, which Elvio Mich places around 1750 thanks to the comparison with the Madonnina conserved in the church of the Franciscans of Caldaro/Kaltern (fig. 1), which, as the chronicle of the convent published by Nicolò Rasmo attests, was donated by the artist in 1752 (Cf. Rasmo, 1977, p. 223, table X), is placed to the years shortly after. The work, though small in size, shows a surprising qualitative strength in which the author's cultural tradition is wonderfully combined with the Venetian stylistic features of the time with refined rocaille outcomes. The work is accompanied by a critical file by Elvio Mich. Reference bibliography: E. Mich, Francis Unterperger sacred and profane, in New Studies, IX-X, 2004-2005, no. 11, pp. 269-275 E. Mich, Francesco Unterperger card, in Precious gifts images and objects from museum collections, exhibition catalog edited by L. Dal Prà, F. de Gramatica, Trent 2014