Fights With Brigands In The Roman Countryside. Nineteenth Century.

Italian brigands surprised by papal troops. XIX century

Fights with brigands in the Roman countryside. Nineteenth century. Characteristic technique among foreign and German traveling painters: oil on metal plate, probably zinc, repainted in red to make the plate look like the finest copper. The painting depicts a scene of an assault by papal dragoons against the Ciociari brigands. The different sketches inside the painting first show us the misdeeds of the brigands and a later arrival of the troops.
Top right - The carriage stopped by the brigands, left empty on the road, with the dead on the ground; the well-dressed woman kidnapped and dragged by the brigands. The women are dressed in colorful Ciociaria costumes and typical folded cloth headdresses.
The paint is in good condition.
It reproduces with minimal differences the scene of Horace Vernet, painted in 1831, during his stay in Italy during his tenure as director of the French Academy.
Unusual metal frame.