(Salò 1687–1771 Venice)
River landscape with figures and a donkey; and River landscape with a shepherd, rider and cattle
oil on canvas, 73.5 x 96 cm; 72.5 x 96.5 cm, framed
a pair(2)

Provenance:
European private collection

We are grateful to Dr. Federica Spadotto for confirming the attribution of the present paintings after examination in the original.

This evocative pair of paintings, depicting country scenes with farmers and animals against a backdrop of mountains and villages, belongs to the mature phase of Giovanni Battista Cimaroli’s artistic production. Originally from Brescia, Cimaroli arrived in Venice in 1713 after his marriage to Giovanna Caterina Pachman, who was a painter of still lifes and the daughter of a Flemish artist. He married with the blessing of his master, Antonio Calza, who was also the young woman’s brother-in-law. In the lively capital of the Serenissima, Cimaroli found fertile ground for the development of a painterly style he had assimilated in Lombardy and which was profoundly rooted in the depiction of realism. His firm trait of delineating the contours of his characters, his inclination to depict everyday events and small details of life, represent his conception of art as craftsmanship.

In the works under consideration, the aforementioned elements also reveal the influence of the work of Francesco Zuccarelli both in the colouring, with its pastel hues in the background, and in the light brush strokes. The meticulous attention to detail in the appearance of trees and bushes, is a quintessential trait of Cimaroli’s style. The foliage displayed against the backdrop of a clear afternoon sky is an example of artistic virtuosity executed with a fine-tipped brush. It was this pleasant flourish that prompted Owen MacSwiny to select this artist in the 1720’s to execute the cycle of the Tombeaux des Princes together with Canaletto, Piazzetta, Balestra and Pittoni.
The architecture depicted bears a genuine resemblance to the farming villages of the Veneto countryside, and the compostion has been “enriched” by towers and wooden bridges of Northern origin that were most probably inspired by contemporary etchings. Despite being transformed, the composition is presented as a depiction of everyday life transformed through the attentive eye of the artist.

References to artists such as Alessandro Magnasco can be seen in the broken tree trunk on the far right of the first painting, and Marco Ricci in the shepherd’s gesture in the pendant painting, as well as to the aforementioned Zuccarelli (see F. Spadotto, Francesco Zuccarelli, catalogue raisonné of his paintings, Milan, 2007, no.s 13-14), to François Boucher create a powerfully evocative scene in which dream resembles life, pervaded by the bright, diffuse light of an afternoon.

A version with similar dimensions of the River landscape with shepherd, rider and cattle, formerly in the Bonomi collection (see A. Morassi, Saggio su Giambattista Cimaroli collaboratore del Canaletto, in: Arte Veneta, XXVI, 1972, fig. 237) and F. Spadotto, Un artista dimenticato: Giovan Battista Cimaroli, in: Saggi e Memorie di Storia dell’Arte, 23, 1999, no. 23; F. Spadotto, Giovan Battista Cimaroli, catalogue raisonné of his paintings, Rovigo, 2011, n° 37).

We are grateful to Dr. Federica Spadotto for her assistance in cataloguing the present lot.