Description
Venetian painter (18th century) – Time and Youth.
Oil on canvas, in a carved and gilded wooden frame.
This small-scale painting, executed with a fluid and spontaneous touch, is consistent with a preparatory sketch (bozzetto) intended for a larger composition. The scene depicts an elderly winged figure (an allegory of Time) turned toward a semi-nude young female figure draped in an ochre and white mantle, seated on a rocky outcrop within a wooded landscape. The luminous handling of blues and reds, the airy placement of figures, and the painterly execution find close parallels in the work of Sebastiano Ricci, while the soft modelling of flesh and refined compositional elegance recall the manner of Giambattista Pittoni.
Condition report: Relined canvas. Good state of conservation of the painted surface, with traces of old restorations.
