(Rome 1602–1660)
The Country Dance, the Saltarello,
oil on canvas, 52 x 67 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private Collection, Genoa

Literature:
G. Briganti. L. Trezzani, L. Laureati, I Bamboccianti: pittori della vita quotidiana a Roma nel Seicento, Rome 1983, pp. 144, fig. 5.10

We are grateful to Laura Laureati for reconfirming the attribution after examination of the painting in the original.

The subject of the present painting corresponds with the genre of the so-called bambocciate and represents the traditional dance called the saltarello, which was known throughout central Italy during the 17th and 18th centuries.
A crowd is gathered, with two figures at the centre of the composition. To the amusement of the surrounding spectators, the two of them are intent on starting the dance. In the background, other scenes of everyday life unfold; two contadini raise their drinks and another three appear to be in discussion in front of a doorway.

The work can be dated to around 1650 and the composition and style can be compared to a group of works including The Death of the Donkey in the Galleria Spada, Rome (inv. 224) and The Peasant Wedding in a Florentine private collection (op. cit. p.150 and Zeri catalogue, entry n. 50352). These works also reflect the style and influence of the Flemish painter, Jan Miel, but translated into an Italian idiom.

Cerquozzi was among the first and most successful of the Italian painters to introduce this type of genre painting, which originated in the Low Countries, and although it differed from the local tradition of painting, it was still widely disseminated. Knowledge of the artist’s formative period remains scarce, however it is certain that Cerquozzi was close to northern artists such as Pieter and Roeland van Laer as well as Jan Miel.