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SILVER Seller in Milano, Italia
Oil painting on canvas by Antonio Francesco Peruzzini (Ancona, 1643 - Milan, 1724) depicting Saint Paul the Hermit and the Raven, 17th century. Paul of Thebes, also known as Paul the Hermit, is revered as the first Christian hermit. According to legend, he retreated to the Egyptian desert at the age of 20 to escape persecution during the reign of Emperor Decius. He lived alone for decades, devoting himself to prayer and mortification of the flesh. His story is closely linked to a raven sent by God to provide for his sustenance. Every day, the raven brought Paul half a loaf of bread, taken from the table of a monk who lived in a nearby monastery. This miraculous gift became a symbol of divine providence and God's ability to sustain those who serve him faithfully. The episode of St. Paul and the Raven became the pretext for Peruzzini to create a complex landscape scene of foliage, shrubs, rocks, and water curls. It is not unusual for Peruzzini to include religious episodes and figures in his landscapes, as works such as the Temptations of St. Anthony from the Hermitage( in collaboration with Sebastiano Ricci), the stormy landscape with Munich from the Kunsthistoriches Museum in Vienna, the landscapes with monks from the Stadelsches Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt or the Great Forest from the Gallerie dell'Accademia in collaboration with Alessandro Magnasco well demonstrate. Described by Mina Gregori as "the most original and rupturing landscape painter to emerge at the end of the seventeenth century," Antonio Francesco Peruzzini has recently been re-evaluated from his former qualification as a mere subordinate of Lissandrino (Alessandro Magnasco), with respect to whom he turns out to be an excellent coadjutor and original landscape painter. Documented within the Archives of the Archiepiscopal Curia of Milan with respect to the Parish of Santo Stefano Maggiore as well as in the Milanese State Archives, whence the double hypothesis of the year of his birth because of the different age remembered at the time of his death, the artist was probably trained in a family environment, both his father Domenico and his brothers Paolo and Giovanni already being painters. Having later perfected his skills in landscape painting, Peruzzini first moved to Rome in 1663, where there is evidence of the shipment to Turin of canvases executed on behalf of Charles Emmanuel II of Savoy; from this period are the "Burrasche" donated to the Holy House of Loreto, his earliest known works. Between 1682 and 1689 the artist is documented in the city of Bologna, where he collaborated with Giovanni Antonio Burrini and Sebastiano Ricci on a commission from Count Annibale Ranuzzi. A number of canvases now preserved at Isola Bella as part of the Borromeo Archive testify to the artist's long stay within the Emilian city, as well as the happy relationship with Count Vitaliano Borromeo, flanked by contracts extended to Venice, Modena, Parma, Turin and Casale Monferrato. The artist stayed in Milan between 1690 and 1695 in the pay of Cesare Pagani marchese, thus drawing closer to Alessandro Magnasco, with whom he would have a prolific working relationship. In 1703 he lived at the Medici residences and attended to the most up-to-date requests of the Florentine nobles, also pleasing Ferdinando de' Medici, unless he retired again to Milan with Magnasco and worked there until his death.
ID: 77435-1719994475-96198
