Workshop Of Jan Frans Van Bloemen (antwerp, 1622 - Rome, 1749), Landscape Of The Lazio

Workshop of Jan Frans van Bloemen (Antwerp, 1622 - Rome, 1749)

Landscape of the Lazio

Oil on canvas, cm 48,5 x 64,5

The painting, to be considered part of the vast production of Jan Frans van Bloemen and his students, first of all Marcantonio Sardi, active in Rome between 1711 and 1733.

The composition portrays the lush Roman countryside, in particular it is the village of Grottaferrata with the church and the convent of Santa Maria founded by San Nilo and inhabited by Basilian monks, following a well-tried image scheme by the 18th century landscape painters active in the papal city and particularly by Bloemen, as the numerous comparisons of paintings now in private national and international collections well highlight (Florence, Bari, London and New York), in the three recurring figures, the laundress and the man and the woman sitting on ancient ruins in the foreground that address them with a casual approach, while in the background opens the village perched and the vast valley with pointed peaks.

He belonged to a family of Flemish painters and draughtsmen, also active in Italy and France. From 1686-1687 the two brothers, Jan and Pieter, lived in Rome, where they joined the Schildersbent, Pieter with the nickname of Stendardo, probably for the banners he painted in battle scenes, while Jan Frans with the nickname of Orizzonte, for the ease with which he painted landscapes, previously entrusted to Claude Lorrain. Jan did not leave Rome except for a short period of eight months, during which he visited Naples, Sicily and Malta; in 1714 he was included among the Virtuosi at the Pantheon and collaborated with Placido Costanzi and Filippo Lauri. Among his patrons and collectors we remember the Pallavicini families (in whose Gallery there are some paintings still today) and Rospigliosi, Louis Bonaparte, Humphry Morice and Pope Benedict XIV.