Pandolfo Reschi (ca. 1640 –1699), Pair of scenes depicting the Battle of Fornovo

Pandolfo Reschi (Danzig, ca. 1640 – Florence, 1699)

Pair of scenes depicting the Battle of Fornovo

(2) Oil on canvas, 55 x 92 cm

The pair of paintings presented here, oils on canvas, 55 x 92 cm, depicts two battle scenes attributable to the hand of the Polish artist Pandolf Resch, Italianized Pandolfo Reschi (Danzig, ca. 1640 – Florence, 1699), remembered as the best “battalist” among the Florentine painters.

Having moved to Rome at an early age, he first trained alongside the Flemish master Livio Mehus, subsequently arriving at the workshop of Jacques Courtois, known as il Borgognone, where he began to dedicate himself to genre painting. Following Mehus on his travels to Florence, he was hired, around 1670, by the Medici court under the protection of Cardinal Francesco Maria de 'Medici, with whom he lived between 1680 until the day of his death. His paintings were much appreciated and commissioned by the major Tuscan noble families, in particular the Gerini and the Corsini families. During his flourishing career he also worked for the Uffizi Gallery under the direction of the Florentine scholar and architect Giacinto Marmi, further increasing his fame.

The canvases examined retrace the famous Battle of Fornovo, a short but bloody clash that took place on 6 July 1495 in Fornovo di Taro, not far from Parma, during the Italian Wars: in fact, in the distance, the very top of the Cathedral would appear to be visible of Parma, with the bell tower in Lombard Romanesque style and the Baptistery of San Giovanni. During the battle, the army of Charles VIII of France - made up of Frenchmen, Swiss mercenaries and a large contingent of Italians - and that of the Anti-French League - made up of the armies of Milan and Venice, mostly made up of Italian mercenaries - faced each other. , Dalmatians, Greeks and Germans. The representation of the furious physical clash, the tangle of bodies and the heated atmosphere of the pitched battle, darkened by smoke and dust, becomes predominant in the canvases. As has been underlined several times, Borgognone's contribution was decisive in the elaboration of this typology of battle, in which the monumental structure, already inaugurated by Salvator Rosa, is enriched with realistic notations and at the same time is resized to a central narrower focal length. There are, in fact, interesting elements that confirm the attribution of the couple to Pandolfo Reschi: the excited and dramatic composition, a close-up point of view that favors the groups in the foreground; the smoky atmosphere, weighed down by artillery explosions and the dust raised in the clash, the slope of the scene towards the horizon through an increasingly synthetic use of colour. Another "topos" of the battle genre that Reschi tries his hand at is that of the mobilization of mounted troops and their strategic positioning before the clash. The presence of a slender tree in the background on the left and the scanning of the planes through vegetal elements is a characteristic recognizable in other similar works by the artist. Compared to the great masters mentioned above, his style stands out due to certain metallic colours, bordering on coldness, making his production particularly original and sought after by collectors of his era. Many of his paintings are today preserved in prestigious galleries and private collections, including the Palatine Gallery and the Gallery of Palazzo Medici Riccardi. 

The object is in good condition

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