Pierre Antoine Demachy (1723 -1807) Architectural Whim

Pierre Antoine Demachy (Paris, 1723 - Louvre, 1807)

Architectural whim

Oil on canvas, 63 x 75 cm

With frame, cm 72 x 84

Dominated by a certain compositional and perspective rigor, the work under examination is a valuable example of architectural Capriccio, or of that kind in vogue in the eighteenth century started by the Emilian Panini and that consisted in recreating compositions with the subject of ancient architecture and ruins, assembled in an imaginative way.

Almost at the center of the canvas stands an obelisk closed at the sides by imposing classical buildings that degrade on the bottom. The fifth stage in the foreground is the pronaos of a Corinthian temple on one side, and on the other a high base that supports a column on which some stone fragments are piled, in the wake of Panini and Ghisolfi. 

Then there is a temple with a circular plan and a triumphal arch, while a pyramid, like the one wanted by Caius Cestius in Rome, fades on the horizon. Some figures that act in the proscenium animate the scene. 

The reference to classical antiquities and in particular Roman allows to report the work to the French painter Pierre Antoine Demachy, born in Paris in 1723. He trained at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1753 where he was a pupil of Giovan Battista Servandoni, an artist specializing in architectural whims and Tromp l'oeil. Servandoni was a direct pupil of Panini in Rome and he learned from him the principles of the Capriccio genre, which were transmitted to Demachy, also thanks to the circulation of engravings of the works of the Emilian master in France. Demachy shows It can also be assumed that Demachy also indirectly knew the works of the family of scenographers and architects Galli of Bibbiena. 

Demachy never left France but, nevertheless, he used to affix to his works the signature followed by "Rome", recalling the strong Italian and especially Panini influence: It is no coincidence that the Mercury of October 1757 wrote that the Capricci exposed by Demachy could be mistaken for those of Panini. 

Demachy also used to depict Parisian monuments under construction or demolition with an accentuated ruinistic character, but also interiors of cathedrals and churches, of which an example is the Capriccio preserved at the Louvre in Paris. 

Demachy’s work in a strong revival of Panini models contributed to the spread of the genre in France, also thanks to the reproduction in engraving of some of his whims that served the cabinetmakers of the time to decorate the furnishings in marquetry. 


The object is in good condition
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