Alessandro Varotari detto il Padovanino (Padova... Lot n° 141

Alessandro Varotari known as il Padovanino (Padua 1588 - Venice 1649) workshop of Hercules and Onphale Oil on canvas 100 x 80 cm original measurements 109 x 80 cm actual measurements with upper band added 9 cm The rosy hues of the flesh in close proximity to the marked black outlines of the figures bring the work convincingly into Padovanino's pictorial sphere. The little faces of the two putti are found in the Venus Feast preserved at the Carrara Academy in Bergamo. A son of art, his father Dario was a Veronese-inspired painter, and brother of Chiara Varotari, a distinguished portrait painter of the 17th-century Padovanino. He was a pupil of Damiano Mazza exponent of the Titian tradition. After his debut in his hometown, he moved momentarily to Rome and Venice, where he was enrolled in the Fraglia of painters from 1615 to 1639. In his works, in addition to the influence of Titian, the attention to architectural wings derived from Veronese and, as the years passed, to the dynamism of Palma il Giovane are evident. His formal elegance and painterly softness are enhanced in the mythological scenes characterized by sensual and classical nudes. In many ways, these representations are anticipatory of those that Sebastiano Ricci and Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini would produce a century later. Alessandro Varotari also called il Padovanino (Padua 1588 - Venice 1649) workshop of Hercules and Omphale Oil on canvas 100 x 80 cm original measurements 109 x 80 cm current measurements with an added upper band of 9 cm The rosy shades of the flesh near the marked black outlines of the figures convincingly bring the artwork into the pictorial context of Padovanino. The little faces of the two cherubs can be found in the Feast of Venus preserved at the Carrara Academy in Bergamo.