110x162cm
16th century, Lombard school
Banquet scene
Oil on canvas, 110 x 162 cm
With frame, 121 x 172 cm
The work depicts a banquet scene with five participants positioned around a table covered by a white tablecloth whose folds along the front edge recall the curtains of a theater stage curtain, so carefully designed are the geometry and chiaroscuro effects. Above, the scene unfolds with five characters with a young woman in the center showing one of the dishes to the two guests on the left: a bearded old man with a turban and a richly dressed lady in profile. On the right, instead, we find a boy with a plumed hat who looks behind the woman in the center and an old man, also bearded, leaning on his elbow on the table. The sumptuous clothes, the jewels, the crowns and the sumptuous table service give the characters a certain social standing, perhaps noble or courtly, which makes us reflect on the subject represented: it could be a simple banquet but the attitudes of the guests betray a more serious and solemn tone. English: Furthermore, the gesture of the central woman, who stares at the viewer as if to underline the gesture, seems to take the other people present by surprise, intent on scrutinizing with serious and questioning expressions the plate on which there is a simple loaf of bread. There do not seem to be reasons that justify such serious expressions but observing other scenes of the Venetian pictorial tradition and not only we find similar faces, looks, costumes and gestures when we observe the episode of Herod's banquet, with the substantial difference of the Baptist's head on the plate brought by Salome instead of the simple bread. Perhaps that episode has been reproduced here for the extreme quality and preciousness of the details, for the exceptional psychological introspection of the characters or for having a hidden connection with a biblical episode linked to conviviality at the table. It is also worth noting the crowns of the old man on the right and of the woman in profile that further suggest a royal banquet like that of Herod, as well as the exotic and oriental turban of the bearded old man on the left, often present in paintings with this subject. In any case, the quality is high in the chiaroscuro, in the reflections of light on the precious clothes and dishes, in the expressive rendering of each character and in the use of cold tones, which give a sparkling contrast with the precious golden details. The stylistic references can be identified in the Lombard school, with particular attention to Brescian painters such as Moretto, without excluding a possible influence also from Venetian painting, which spread in the eastern territories of the region during the dominion of the republic.
The object is in good condition
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