Setting By Pieter Van Laer, 17th Century, Begging Scene

Setting by Pieter Van Laer, 17th century

Begging scene

Oil on canvas, 68 x 70 cm

Documented in Rome from 1625 to 1638, Pieter Van Laer is one of the young Flemish, Dutch and German painters who come to the capital to specialize in the art of painting. Van Laer, in fact, tried to blend the deep humanity of Caravaggio with the realism of the Nordic tradition, adopting a simpler and drier tone than the descriptive and caricatural results of the other children.

Born in Haarlem in 1592, Bamboccio was the nickname given to him in Rome, perhaps for his round face, colored by the attendance of inns. He was recognized as the first to begin a pictorial trend that emphasized episodes of real life. 

His works, characterized by small size and anecdotal spirit, were called bambocciate. The author, starting from Caravaggio’s models, created works characterized by a narrative and sketchy realism. His best known follower was Michelangelo Cerquozzi. Back in Holland, after a stay in Amsterdam, he retired to Haarlem.

The genre scene depicts a character of bourgeois extraction in the act of giving alms to two beggars with the right hand while with the left hand shows a woman and her child the image of the Virgin. Probably, given the time, the episode takes its cue from the actions of San Filippo Neri. Of Tuscan origin, he lived in Rome at the end of '500 and founded the Congregation of Oratorians. He took care especially of children, of widows and the poor in times of famine. The setting sees some ruins of Roman times now incorporated by vegetation and a piece of landscape in the background. Inevitable is the dog in the lower right corner, recurrent stylistic figure of the author. In the paintings of the current there was never any intention of criticism or social protest while there was a more or less concealed mockery of popular customs.

Some stylistic comparisons can be made on the painting preserved at the Superintendence of Parma and Piacenza, depicting a mother with child in the Roman countryside (see the comparison with our praying child)The one belonged to a noble collection of Monaco representing a beggar sitting in the shade of Roman vestiges and other works appeared on the antique market. Among the characteristics in common with the present paintings of a certain matrix must be mentioned the brushstroke of material, the lively naturalism and the taste for dramatic chiaroscuro.

The object is in good condition

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