LOUIS DE CAULLERY (VERS 1565 - 1622) Lot n° 5

FANTASY LANDSCAPE WITH THE VILLA MEDICIS Canvas 55 x 80 cm The Villa Medici was built on the Pincio hill in the 16th century, on behalf of Cardinal Ricci, on the site of the ancient gardens of Lucullus. After the premature death of its owner, Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici bought the estate in 1576 with the intention of making it the setting for his collection of art and antiquities. The result is a palace designed by its architect Bartolomeo Ammannati as a museum with a gallery-anquarium within a botanical garden decorated with fountains. Louis de Caullery, a Flemish painter born in Antwerp, is one of the pioneers of the artistic genre of court meetings and country in Flemish painting. He chose the gardens of this emblematic place as the setting for his carnival, allowing him to combine He chose the gardens of this emblematic place as the setting for his carnival, allowing him to combine his favorite themes and what he was celebrated for at the time: architectural scenes with this large villa and its sumptuous gardens and festive scenes, offering him the opportunity to multiply the figures and folk costumes. The detailed rendering of Italian monuments in his work has long made us think that the Italian scenes of the painter were the result of a trip to the peninsula. Today it is accepted that the Venetian, Florentine and Roman buildings in his works are probably based on those depicted by masters who had themselves traveled to Italy. the trip to Italy.