Antonio Travi Dit 'sestri' (genes 1608 - 1665), Landscape With Ruins And Biblical Scene

Antonio Travi, called Sestri
(Genoa, Sestri Ponente 1608 - Genoa 1665)
Landscape with ruins and biblical scene

First half of the seventeenth century
oil on canvas, 82 x 121 cm
with frame cm. 105 x 145

Descriptive and full photographic details: www.ANTICHITACASTELBARCO.it
The beautiful painting published, which presents a vast landscape with architectural ruins, fully reflects the pictorial poetics of Antonio Travi (Sestri Ponente 1608 - Genoa 1665), the first landscape painter of the Genoese pictorial school; A poetic that remains constant throughout his career: Bernardo Strozzi at its inception, until his death in 1668, when his flourishing workshop was joined by many children and students. [...] Looking at the style characters, we see the proof of the brush stroke and the love for the typical color of the master Strozzi, but also a clarity and precision typical of the Flemings active in Genoa, with a reference particular to the German Goffredo Waals, present in several collections of the Genoese aristocracy. The luminous and metaphysical scenes of Wals are translated into Travi's painting with a ruins taste in Ligurian key, through rapid brush strokes, dense color and a fantastic naturalism accentuated by a silvery luminosity. From the proposed canvas, we can deduce typical elements of his palette, such as precise chromatic chords and the studied insertion of lighter shades on the basic tones of the lands and whites. As far as composition is concerned, his passionate investigation of the Italian landscape remains practically unchanged in time, where traces of the inexorable time he spends - architecture in old ruin and dilapidated houses - inhabit scenarios of a silent nature. His works are always animated by little figures who carry out their daily activities with simplicity: they bring their flock to drink or to graze on the banks of the river. [...] However, it must be emphasized that the presence of the man does not seem never to be decisive, but that the true protagonist of his works is a nature that reveals itself in all its simplicity. This painting makes it explicit: almost a manifesto of its poetic vein, where ruin is the real queen of the stage [...] The perceived quality is that of an exquisite autography: see the reflections on the water, the minutia descriptive of the ruin in each stone and even the traces of decoration on the arches of the summit, the shots of white which are flashes of light.

Certificate of guarantee and authenticity according to the law (FIMA).