Antonio Amorosi (1660 – 1738), Circle of - Portrait of a young commoner with a jug

Cerchia di antonio amorosi (comunanza, 1660 – rome, 1738) portrait of a young commoner with jug oil on canvas, 87 X 67 cm the painting representing the portrait of a commoner was created by an artist active in the workshop of 'antonio mercurio amorosi (1660-1738), undoubtedly reflecting a realism of caravaggesque origin, but also obvious affinities with lombard naturalism and its nordic contaminations. In the portrait examined there are also analogies with the works of giacomo francesco cipper known as todeschini, given the bamboo character of the images, which cipper, like monsù bernardo, offered in their descriptions of the humble, conditioned by a literary vein. This is a trend that distinguished a preponderant part of italian art of the 18th century, just think of giacomo ceruti known as pittocchetto or gaspare traversi, who produced works in which the comic tradition and social analysis have achieved results of extraordinary artistic validity. A student of giuseppe ghezzi, amorosi worked mainly in rome, devoting himself to both religious painting (altarpieces of s. Rocco, s. Maria in cosmedin) and genre painting. Amorosi's greatest fame is linked to his "bambocciate" paintings: paintings of different formats and simple popular subjects, highly appreciated by his contemporaries. Of this production, preserved in museums and private collections in europe and still little known, we can remember in particular: the peasant with the nest and the peasant girl with the chick from the devonshire collection in london, the boy with the bunch of grapes from the schleissheim gallery, the young man with the chalice, the young painter and some paintings from the municipal art gallery of deruta, from the collection of the historiographer lyon pascoli. The latter are useful for a comparison with the canvases examined, as well as with the different versions of the young man with a jug, today.

Ref. : RDFURGKK