Description

Alessio De Marchis (Napoli, 1710 ca – Perugia, 1752)

River landscape with figures
Oil painting on canvas.

The Neapolitan artist Alessio Puciollo De Marchis undertook his first painting training in Rome, at the workshop of Pieter Philip Roos, better known as Rosa da Tivoli, who directed him to the theme of the landscape, which was very popular in the eighteenth century. Although there is no direct relationship from the sources, it is desirable to assume that during his training he was also influenced by some of the most famous landscape painters of the century, Gaspard Dughet and Salvator Rosa. This debt is clearly evident also by observing this canvas: we owe the depth of the landscape composition to Rosa, and Dughet’s certainly the refinement of the natural elements, such as the foliage of the trees.
But it is in the brushstroke that we recognize the painter’s originality, which is rendered almost romantically, in spots; it is an expressive, lively and short brushstroke. The colors are soft, the blue stands out for its brightness and clarity, it contrasts with the more “composed” and discreet tones of greens and earths. The figures are rendered with a vibrant brushstroke, which restores care and attention to the characters, discreet and perfectly immersed within the landscape, almost decorative.

Our reference: A04483