Roman school of the XVIIth-XVIIIth century. "Pastoral... Lot 1

Roman school of the XVIIth-XVIIIth century. "Pastoral scene in a roman garden. Oil on canvas. Dim.205x152 cm. Framing. The subject of the painting is a pastoral, a country scene where shepherds and their herds, here cows and goats, are represented. The main group in the foreground is a young woman holding a swaddled infant. She is facing a young boy who is talking to her, his finger raised, the gesture supported by a word that could be a revelation, a recommendation, an admonition or anything else! The attitude of this young boy is prolonged by that of a third character who is sitting nonchalantly, bare-chested, and who looks at the young woman while pointing with his outstretched arm in the direction of the herd of cows. What could be the meaning of this scene? Is it an allegory of motherhood, of mother earth, the one sung in Virgil's Bucolica, which has inspired so many artists? The pastorals can give rise to an interpretation that brings to the fore all kinds of undertones. They are not as innocent as they seem and it is possible to give another reading. The rural setting of this scene is that of the Roman countryside, outlined by tall umbrella pines and criss-crossed by a winding stream. In the distance, in the wide gap in the foliage of the trees, an ancient city appears, most certainly Rome, with a red granite obelisk overhanging a fountain and placed in front of architecture punctuated by wide arcades. The obelisk could be that of the Esquiline. Of Egyptian origin, it framed the mausoleum of Augustus with its twin, the Quirinal obelisk. The foreground of the painting also evokes Rome and antiquity with a monumental crater vase on a base, an interpretation of the Borghese or Medici vase. The author of this pastoral could be Angeluccio (c.1620-c.1650), Claude Lorrain's most gifted pupil according to his biographer Pascoli . Died prematurely at the age of 30, Angeluccio left about twenty known paintings, perhaps more but which could have been attributed to other painters. Contemporary of Angeluccio, Herman van Swanevelt (c.1603/1604-c.1655) called Herman d'Italie is close to our painting as even more surely the later Jean-Baptiste Lallemand (1716-1803) whose several pastorals affectionate our red granite obelisk and our crater vase in an idealized Roman countryside.