Lot 167

Canvas likely relined, hessian backing visible verso, overall cracking (stable) and minor flecks of old paint loss, horizontal line across upper section from edge to edge approximately 20cm down from the top likely restoration from an old tear or crease (visible to naked eye and under UV light), area of overpainting to sky along the top, horizontal section of overpainting possibly restoration of a tear or crease in top right corner of building approximately 5cm down from the top edge, small spots of overpainting throughout sky and some small spots on building and floor near dog in foreground.


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Please note condition reports can be amended during the pre-sale period, so we strongly suggest any interested bidders check the published condition report available on the website before the auction commences. Leonard Joel makes no guarantee of the originality of mechanical or applied components. Absence of reference to such modifications does not imply that a lot is free from modifications.

Tomasso, London

Derived from reality but in fact a reflection of the artist's imagination, this architectural fantasy or capriccio exemplifies decorative canvases popular in the 17th century. These extravagant and whimsical landscapes were born out of early examples of quadrature - illusionistic murals painted as large-scale frescoes, usually on the ceiling of a church. The architectural elements in quadrature were intended to extend the real architecture of the room and lift a congregation's thoughts to heaven, often providing some of the finest examples of trompe-l'oeil in art.

Artists Alessandro Salucci and Viviano Codazzi utilised the techniques of quadrature painters and designers (such as linear perspective and masterful representation of architectural space) to paint imaginary scenes for decorative rather than spiritual ends in their capricci. Their conjured alternate realities provided audiences with visual escapes that were a playful composite of the real and ideal. Salucci was particularly well known to demonstrate creativity and liberty in his approach to piecing together elements in his scenes. He would frequently pull Roman monuments, baroque churches and renaissance facades from various sources in reality, as well as his imagination, and use them to his own extravagant compositional ends.

Capricci painters (capriccisti) would often employ other artists to populate their canvases. Flemish painter and engraver Jan Miel was Salucci's most frequent collaborator. As one of the bamboccianti genre painters, he specialised in scenes of contemporary life, often observing and depicting the lower classes in Rome, where he lived from the 1630s. His popular subjects include those depicted in this capriccio - villagers dancing, noble people, musicians, beggars, and urchins. In this example, revellers congregate around an obelisk to dance in the golden light, with nobles emerging from the porticos of the grand palazzo to participate. Additional miniature anecdotal scenes are contained within the setting, including a beggar appealing to a nobleman on the central stairs, and a dog stealing the ragged shoe of another beggar at the foot of these stairs between two Tuscan columns.

Receding into the distance are the ruins of an ancient building atop a fortified town, the crumbling grandeur of the past coexisting with the extravagant aristocratic present, and the everyday life of lower-class society.

Marcella Fox | Sydney Manager