Knights' Rest

Francesco Casanova (London 1732/33- Vorderbruhl, Vienna 1803)

Knights' Rest

Oil on canvas, 37,5 x 67,5 cm

With frame, 48 x 78 cm

Critical sheet Prof. Alberto Crispo

The unpublished painting presented here depicts a stop of knights in a mountain landscape. The knight in the center controls the situation, the two in the foreground, lying on the ground, are resting from the fatigues of the journey and the one in the background is busy tying up the luggage, while on the left you can see in the distance other figurines of soldiers on horseback.

The canvas is the work of Francesco Casanova, as revealed by comparisons with other works by the artist such as the Cavaliere del Louvre or the other one sold on 17 May 2007 at Finarte in Goito, lot 162, not to mention the other canvas with a battle scene which appeared at Sotheby's in London on 8 November 1978, lot 9. In all the compared examples we find the same liquid rendering of the colour, partly derived from the study of the Venetians, and the very evident Nordic taste, which echoes the models of Philips Wouwermann and Jan van Huchtenburg.

Francesco Casanova was born in 1732/33 in London, where his parents were acting. He trained in Venice with the Guardi family, in Florence with Simonini and in Paris with Charles Parrocel: his visual imagination was also shaped by the Battles of Bergognone, which were particularly appreciated by clients in that period. Having reached full artistic maturity, Casanova was active between Dresden and Paris, where he received particularly positive opinions regarding his work, including from the creator of the mammoth project of the Encyclopédie, Diderot. During his stay in Paris, Casanova painted two of his most famous works, the battles of Fribourg and Lens for the Bourbon palace of the Prince of Condé (now in the Louvre). It seems that the artist later returned to Dresden, but, from the end of 1783, he moved to Vienna, together with his more famous brother Giacomo, and lived there until his death in nearby Vorderbruhl in 1803. During his residence in Vienna, the painter also worked for Tsarina Catherine II of Russia, executing canvases depicting episodes of the Russo-Turkish wars (1769-74 and 1787-92). Francesco Casanova had a large school and among his students we should mention at least the battle painters Jacques-Philippe de Loutherbourgh the younger, Jean-Pierre Norblin de la Gourdaine, Ignace Duvivier and Jean-Baptiste Le Paon.