Andrea Locatelli ( 1695 - 1741), Architectural Whim With Ruins

Andrea Locatelli ( Rome, 1695 - 1741)



Architectural whim with ruins



Oil on canvas ,cm 47 x 62



Criticism Prof. Alessandro Agresti



Andrea Locatelli ( Roma, 1695 - 1741) one of the most frescoed Roman landscape artists of the eighteenth century, dedicated himself assiduously to the strand of the "architectural Capirccio". Proof of this is the present building in which there are ancient ruins: a sure-life pyramid taken from the Cestia, a male statue and a colossal equestrian statue homage to the masterpiece of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, The vision of Constantine. All around, among the rubble of a distant way, small figurines made with quick touches: a soldier in armour stretched out and a mother with her children while two others, in the distance, seem intent on looking at the horizon. 



Andrea Locatelli ( Roma, 1695 - 1741) was born in Rome in 1695; there is little information about his formation with his father Giovanni Francesco and his uncle Pietro Lucatelli, born in Rome in 1634. There is also a period of apprenticeship with the marine painter Monsù Alto, of whom we know only two works traced by Marco Chiarini in the deposits of the Florentine museums. Later he was with the landscape painter Fergioni until 1712, probably in the company of Paolo Anesi (Rome, 1697 - 1773). Locatelli after this date was active in full autonomy and accredited to the most famous Roman families. In fact in 1715 he was called to participate in the decorations of the palace at the Corso di Francesco Maria Ruspoli. Locatelli contributed to the lost complex of landscapes, marine and genre scenes, created by an international team of specialists such as Alessandro Marchi or Froncois Simonot known as il Borgognone, by creating the figures of a room.In the same years he worked for the Ottoboni family; commissioned by Cardinal Pietro are paintings in the Palazzo della Cancelleria. For the same cardinal he painted "several paintings" remembered, in 1739, by Charles de Brosses who, among the "bonnes peintures" of the Ottoboni collection; he cites only the paintings of Francesco Trevisani and "des paysages de Lucatelli". In the Ottoboni circle, Locatelli probably knew the architect Juvarra, who had been active in the Chancellery building since 1710. In 1724 he was commissioned by Vittorio Amedeo II of Savoy to make two views of the castle of Rivoli; they were commissioned together with three others by Giovan Paolo Panini and Marco Ricci. 



In 1738, commissioned by Cardinal Neri Corsini, nephew of Pope Clement XII, Locatelli took part in the renovation of the Palazzo Riario, just purchased by the Corsini family. But the collectors most fond of Locatelli were the Colonna: for Girolamo II he painted 57 views and thirty other paintings were exhibited in the gallery of the Palazzo Sciarra Colonna.



The painter fits into the difficult artistic environment of Rome at best, producing fantasy landscapes from the archaeological character on the example of Giovanni Ghisolfi and van Bloemen, realistic and archaic views, to represent popular scenes that influenced Paolo Monaldi and his compositions were certainly important for the artistic career of Gian Paolo Pannini, who moved from his native Piacenza to Rome in about 1715, soon becoming the most famous landscape painter of the time. In these years there has also been a probable exchange of influences between Locatelli and Marco Ricci who, in Rome around 1720, took inspiration for an engraving from the painting of the Roman painter. 

This painting, as reported by Prof. Alessandro Agresti, is plausible both , for the loose and vibrant workmanship, a first idea of a larger work. The invoice of the figurines can be combined with paintings such as Landscape with Wayfarers and Landscape with shepherds of private collection.  In the Capriccio with figures near an altar of Palazzo Corsini we resort to the same stratagem of making the sculptures almost throbbing with life, in particular the workmanship of the bas-relief that can be well approached to the base with soldiers in our painting.



The object is in good condition



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