Description
Venetian painter (18th century) – Architectural Capriccio with Classical Ruins and Heraldic Lion.
Oil on canvas, in a carved and gilded wooden frame.
The painting depicts an architectural capriccio with classical ruins: at the centre of the composition rises a fluted column surmounted by a heraldic lion, flanked on the left by a domed building and a campanile, on the right by a monumental plinth with a sphere. The foreground is animated by figures of common people, a horseman, and dogs, rendered with the fluent brushwork typical of the Venetian macchiette tradition. The luminous sky, crossed by clouds, lends the scene an atmosphere of sunlit vitality. The vivacity of the figures and the atmospheric rendering of the landscape suggest a possible attribution to Antonio Stom (Venice 1688 – Venice 1734), one of the most original interpreters of the Venetian architectural capriccio in the early 18th century.
Condition report: Relined canvas. Good state of conservation of the painted surface.