Circle of Antonio Amorosi (Comunanza, 1660 – Rome, 1738), Portrait of a young commoner

Circle of Antonio Amorosi (Comunanza, 1660 – Rome, 1738)

Portrait of a young commoner

Oil on canvas, 83 x 60 cm

With frame, 87 x 67 cm

The painting depicting a portrait of a commoner was made by an artist active in the workshop of Antonio Mercurio Amorosi (1660-1738), undoubtedly reflecting a realism of Caravaggio origin, but also evident affinities with Lombard naturalism and its Nordic influences. In the portrait examined, there are also analogies with the works of Giacomo Francesco Cipper known as Todeschini, given the childlike nature of the images, which Cipper, like Monsù Bernardo, offered in their descriptions of the humble, conditioned by a literary vein. This is a trend that characterized a preponderant part of eighteenth-century Italian art, just think of Giacomo Ceruti known as Pittocchetto or Gaspare Traversi, who produced works in which the comic tradition and social analysis reached results of extraordinary artistic validity. A pupil of Giuseppe Ghezzi, Amorosi worked mainly in Rome, dedicating himself both to religious painting (altarpieces for S. Rocco, S. Maria in Cosmedin) and to genre painting. Amorosi's greatest fame is linked precisely to his "bambocciate" paintings: paintings of different formats and simple popular subjects, highly appreciated by his contemporaries. Of this production, preserved in museums and private collections in Europe and still little known, we can particularly recall: the Peasant Boy with Nest and the Peasant Girl with Chick in the Devonshire collection in London, the Boy with Bunch of Grapes in the Schleissheim Gallery, the Young Man with Chalice, the Young Painter and some paintings in the Municipal Art Gallery of Deruta, coming from the collection of the historian Lione Pascoli. The latter are useful for a comparison with the canvases examined, as are the different versions of Young Man with Jug, today in private collections.

Lucid and direct and the pauperistic portraiture whose introspection and character analysis skills are applied here in the rendering of the protagonist. The young man is investigated with frankness and truth, highlighting, in line with the master's works, a completely new and moralism-free understanding of the marginalized reality of the poorest. Numerous particulars and details enrich the analyzed canvas, the crumpled clothes, the red cheeks and the objects that make up the surrounding environment enrich the narration of the character, captured in the course of daily actions. The man looks towards the spectator, with a participating gaze, as if he had just been called.