Description
Giuseppe Zais (Forno di Canale 1709 – Treviso 1784) – Landscape with Shepherds and Ruined Bridge.
Oil on canvas, in a carved and gilded wooden frame.
– The painting is attributed with certainty to Giuseppe Zais (Forno di Canale 1709 – Treviso 1784) based on stylistic comparisons.
Condition report: Lined canvas. The painted surface is in good condition.
Giuseppe Zais (1709–1781) was one of the most celebrated Venetian landscape painters, known for his depictions of bucolic scenes featuring stylized figures of shepherds, flocks, and washerwomen, set in an idyllic rural landscape inspired by the Venetian countryside. He trained in Venice, where he observed the works of his illustrious predecessor Marco Ricci, from whom he drew clear inspiration. He was a contemporary of Francesco Zuccarelli, from whom he derived the grace that characterizes his most refined works. Zais’s style was distinguished by a more authentically rural depiction of the Arcadian landscape than that of his contemporaries: his compositions, though Rococo-inspired, are imbued with a different sense of realism, resulting from the use of bolder, browner tones and a textured, rich application of color. The painting presented here is a work of high quality, executed by the Belluno master at the height of his maturity. The protagonists of the scene are the three figures in the center, delicately depicted and delineated by Zais in a moment of peace and serenity on the banks of the stream. The scattered characters, the grazing flock, two fishermen by the river and an imaginary ruined bridge in the background are all elements placed lightly and which give harmony and serenity to this idyllic landscape.
