Matteo Ghidoni Dei Pitocchi - Pair Of Scenes With Travelers Painted In Oil On Canvas

Pair of oil paintings on canvas depicting rural scenes with travellers.
The paintings can be traced back to the painter Matteo Ghidoni known as dei Pitocchi (Padua 1626/1689) active in Padua from the mid-17th century. Matteo Ghidoni is known for his popular compositions depicting 'pitocchi', hence his nickname. His production of a sacred nature was also conspicuous and we remember the numerous works created for the Basilica of Sant'Antonio and the Church of Santa Maria dei Servi, in which the remarkable chiaroscuro tension close to that of the Venetian 'tenebrosi' emerges. However, the painter's fame is linked to 'low' genre subjects where his knowledge of the models of Callot and the Roman Bamboccianti emerges translated into almost naïve pictorial forms, without predetermined compositional structures.
The paintings are set within two beautiful gilded and engraved frames from the 18th century.
81x100 cm including frame
Reference bibliography:
R. Pallucchini, 'Venetian painting of the seventeenth century', Milan 1981