1740
oil
canvas
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Pastoral Scene is a 1740 oil by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, a Baroque work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
You see a half-naked boy holding a basket of grapes in this painting. The boy is thought to be the infant Bacchus, the god of wine. This idea comes from the grapes, but the artist didn't say that's who it is, so it's still a bit mysterious. Check out the technique of chiaroscuro to learn more about how artists like Piazzetta used light and dark.
One of Venice’s leading painters, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta transformed the gritty realism and dramatic light effects of earlier Baroque painting into his own poetic style. This is one of two paintings of life-size, rustic figures that Piazetta made for his patron, Field Marshall Johann Matthias von der Schulenberg. Their meaning remains mysterious. The half-naked boy holding a basket of grapes has been interpreted as the infant Bacchus, the god of wine, although Piazzetta made no reference in his description of the work to a symbolic meaning. The artist was probably responding to his…
Commissioned by Marshall Schulenburg, Venice, by 1743 [his inventory 1743, Royal Academy 1954–55, no. 510]; his heirs; sold to Mr. Greenwood in 1774 [Binion 1994, pp. 98–99]; his sale at Christie’s, London, April 13, 1775, no. 41 or 42; Guida da Faenza Collection; his sale, Rome, 1902 [letter from M. D. Koetser, dated February 27, 1936, in curatorial file]; 17th-Century Gallery, London, 1917 [unsubstantiated note in curatorial file and Maxon and Rishel 1970, p. 88]. Auction London, 1935; G. H. Winterbottom, London; Jacob Heimann, Milan, 1936 [letter from Heimann to Art Institute of Chicago,…
Venice, Correr Museum, 1936–37. San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Venetian Painting: from the Fifteenth Century through the Eighteenth Century, June 25–July 24, 1938, no. 48. Toledo, Museum of Art, Four Centuries of Venetian Painting, March 8–31, 1940, no. 40. Venice, Palazzo Ducale, Dal Ricci a Tiepolo, June 7–October 15, 1969, no. 62. Chicago, Art Institute, Painting in Italy in the Eighteenth Century, September 19–November 8, 1970; traveled to Minneapolis, Institute of Art, December 3, 1970–June 10, 1971, and Toledo, Museum of Art, February 7–March 21, 1971, no. 33.…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (also called Giambattista Piazzetta or Giambattista Valentino Piazzetta) (February 13, 1682 or 1683 – April 28, 1754) was an Italian Rococo painter of religious subjects and genre scenes.
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