Description
Mattia Traverso (Genoa 1885 – Genoa 1956) – Large banquet scene with cherubs and nymphs.
Oil on canvas, in a carved and gilded wooden frame.
Signed lower right.
Mattia Traverso (Genoa 1885 – Genoa 1956) – Large Banquet Scene with Putti and Nymphs. 102 x 161 cm (without frame) – 123 x 181 cm (with frame) Oil on canvas, in a carved and gilded wooden frame. Signed lower right. Mattia Traverso was a Genoese painter active in the first half of the twentieth century, trained within the Ligurian academic tradition with a marked inclination towards arcadian and mythological subjects. His work is characterised by solid technical skill and a luminous palette, reflecting in some canvases the influence of Italian Baroque painting, particularly the Genoese and Venetian schools. The painting depicts an all’antica banquet scene populated by putti and nude female figures. At the centre, a nymph shown from behind pours wine into a chalice held by a young figure, while a dog, a metal ewer and fruit enliven the foreground. In the background, an architectural setting with columns frames a group of revelling figures. The composition evokes the tradition of seventeenth-century Bacchic scenes, reinterpreted through an early twentieth-century academic pictorial language.
Condition report: Original canvas. Good state of conservation of the painted surface; minor surface marks present.
