Carlo Antonio Tavella (1668 – 1738)

Carlo Antonio Tavella (Milan, 1668 - Genoa, 1738)

Arcadian landscape with shepherds and flocks

Oil on canvas, cm 58 x 97

With frame, cm 67 x 105

The canvas in question is part of the vast artistic corpus of the painter Carlo Antonio Tavella (Milan, 1668 - Genoa, 1738), considered one of the most prolific artists of the Baroque period especially in Genoa, the city that saw him most active. Born in 1668 in Milan from a couple of Genoese merchants, Tavella began his first training at the studio of Giuseppe Merati, where he stayed for about three years, landing in 1681 in the well-known workshop of the landscape painter Jan van Grevenbroeck called the Solfarolo, where he remained until the age of twenty-one years (1689) and where he had the opportunity to practice in copying and drawing, especially for what concerned landscapes and villages on fire, specialty of the master. In the same years the artist undertook a series of trips between Lombardy, Bologna, Florence, Pisa and Livorno, which led him to the knowledge of the works and the pictorial languages of Gaspard Dughet, Salvator Rosa and Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, from which he assimilated elaborate scenographic compositions and an excellent rendering of the atmospheres and the relative changes of light. It was probably the constant contact with the Tuscan environment that allowed Tavella to be updated on Roman proposals, as evidenced by some drawings kept at the Cabinet of Drawings and Prints of Palazzo Rosso in Genoa, seeing that in all probability the artist never stayed in the capital: the relations with the landscape painters of Roman culture active at the court of Ferdinando de' Medici, among which Crescenzo Onofri, student and collaborator in Rome di Dughet, and the direct view of the cycle of frescoes with a landscape subject, created by Pandolfo Reschi in the loggia of the villa della Petraia in Florence, represented a fundamental stage in the artist’s continuous training. After a very short return to Milan, in 1690 the decisive move took place to Genoa (interspersed with short trips to Milan, Bergamo and Brescia), where he was immediately confronted with the production of the Dutch painter Pieter Mulier II called the Cavalier Tempesta, of which he was a favorite student, and to complete important commissions such as the decoration with frescoed landscapes of the hall of Liberal Arts in the current Palazzo Rosso (inspired by the taste of those made by Mulier himself in the Palazzo di Nicolosio Lomellino in Genoa). In the capital of Liguria, Tavella started a vast production of landscape paintings for the local nobility and for clients from Lombardy, Piedmont and abroad, introducing in his views figures of saints, Shepherds, farmers and washerwomen borrowed from sheets of repertoire provided by Paolo Gerolamo Piola and Alessandro Magnasco. Of considerable artistic value are the various landscapes with figures preserved in Palazzo Bianco, the landscapes with saints today at the Linguistics Academy of Fine Arts of Genoa or still the canvases exhibited at the Palazzo Durazzo Pallavicini in Genoa or at the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, that share with our canvas a subtle and dynamic brushstroke, accompanied by a distinctive color palette, oriented towards pastel tones and modulated on the contrast between light and shadow. Precisely the skill in atmospheric description contributed to infuse his landscapes, imitating the classic Roman and typical of French painting, a unique depth and vivacity, giving the space effective suggestive and refined. Tavella died in Genoa on 2 December 1738 and was buried in the church of S. Domenico. Biographer Carlo Giuseppe Ratti remembers the daughters Angiola and Teresa, who followed in their father’s footsteps becoming well-known painters, as well as the best student of his workshop, Niccolò Micone, who became known by the nickname "Lo Zoppo". 

With Ars Antiqua it is possible to defer all amounts up to a maximum of € 7,500 at ZERO RATE, for a total of 15 RATES.

Ex. Tot. € 4.500 = Monthly instalment € 300 for 15 months.

Ex. Tot. € 3.600 = Monthly instalment € 720 for 5 months.

For amounts over € 7,500 or for a longer delay in time (more than 15 installments), we can provide a personalized payment.

Contact us directly to get the best quote.

LIVE TV

- SUNDAY 17.00 - 21.00 Dig.terr. 126 - Sky 824

- Streaming on our website www.arsantiquasrl.com and on our social networks Facebook and Youtube

All the works proposed by Ars Antiqua are sold with a certificate of authenticity according to law and an accurate detailed information sheet.

You can see the works at the gallery showroom in Milan, in via Pisacane 55 and 57.

We personally organize transport and delivery of works, both for Italy and abroad.