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Paolo Monaldi (1710 - 1779)
Peasant scene with player and bow in the background, XVIII century
Oil painting on canvas
46 x 38 cm
Monaldi, one of the best landscape and genre painters of his time, expresses his art at its best in works of this type: the subject is in fact typical of the Master, drawing the iconography from the Bamboccianti paintings of the time, but restoring a more sweetened and less realistic vision. A real staging, of which Monaldi studies gestures and scenographic background, as in a theatrical performance: side scenes and backdrops formed by real architectural and landscape elements are the background to genre skits, idyllic and somewhat distant from a representation " verista "of rural life.
The painting, relined, has some retouching in the upper part (especially in the upper right). The conservation status is very good.
Provenance: Dorotheum auction, Vienna, 6 October 2009, lot no. 261