"Pair of landscapes"
Paolo Monaldi (Rome 1710 – after 1779) Landscape with popular scene and fortune telling; oil on canvas, 181 x 64 cm Landscape with morra players, oil on canvas, 186.5 x 68.5 cm Provenance: commissioned by Cardinal Flavio Chigi (1711–1771) for the Salottino of Villa Chigi, Rome, around 1767; by descent to Mario Chigi Albani della Rovere (1832–1914), VII Prince of Farnese, Salottino in Villa Chigi, Rome; from whom it was sold together with Villa Chigi, 1885; repurchased by Ludovico Chigi Albani della Rovere (1866–1951), VIII Prince of Farnese, Salottino of Villa Chigi, Rome, 1897; by descent to his son Sigismondo Chigi Albani della Rovere (1894–1982), IX Prince of Farnese, Salottino in Villa Chigi, Rome; from whom it was purchased by his uncle Francesco Principe Chigi Albani della Rovere (1881–1953), Salottino di Villa Chigi, Rome, 1919; by descent to his son Mario Lodovico Principe Chigi Albani della Rovere (born in 1929), Salottino in Villa Chigi, Rome; alienated to the Istituto Commerciale Italiano, 1960s; with Carlo and Marcello Sestieri, Rome, around 1969; Alemagna Collection, Milan, around 1970; art market, Italy; where it was acquired by the current owner Possibly documented: Entry and exit of Em.mo card. Flavio Chigi. From January 9, 1769, to February 28, 1777, Chigi Archive, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, n. 816: ‘[123] On the 12th of the month (January 1771)… To Paolo Monaldi Painter fifty scudi m.ta paid for the balance of all the Paintings made for the service of S.E., including also those which he is finishing’ (see F. Petrucci, Artistic documents on the 18th century in the Chigi archive (part II), in: Bollettino d’Arte, n. 114, 2000, p. 111) Literature: R. Trinchieri, An little known eighteenth-century villa: Villa Chigi, in: Amor di Roma, s. n., 1955, p. 418, p. 419 the first illustrated as hanging in the Salottino of Villa Chigi (as Paolo Monaldi); G. Incisa dell'Rocchetta, Villa Chigi, in: Capitolium. Rassegna del comune di Roma, 1961, vol. 36, n. 8, p. 5 the first illustrated as hanging in the “Salotto delle Bambocciate”, Villa Chigi, p. 6 (as Paolo Monaldi); A. Busiri Vici, Roman landscape triptych of the 18th century. Paolo Anesi - Paolo Monaldi - Alessio De Marchis, Rome, 1976, pp. 140–142, figs. 145, 147, illustrated (as Paolo Monaldi) The present paintings are registered at the Fototeca Zeri with numbers 77516 and 77514 (as Paolo Monaldi). The paintings were part of the furnishings of Villa Chigi, the prestigious residence built by Flavio II Chigi in 1763 on the Via Salaria near Rome. The vedutista Paolo Anesi and his collaborator Paolo Monaldi painted for the cardinal a large cycle of canvases depicting landscapes with figures , intended to furnish some rooms on the ground floor (dining room and smoking room or sitting room) and on the first floor of the building (the so-called living room or sitting room); the works were perhaps already finished in 1766, when the Villa hosted Pope Clement XIII, but payments to the two artists continued in the following years. Monaldi's landscapes, documented in the living room on the main floor by photographs, were accompanied by some panels with flowers painted by Ludovico Stern and by a screen also decorated with country scenes. The furnishings of the villa were largely commissioned to Nicola Carletti, in line with the style of pictorial decoration, making Villa Chigi one of the most significant examples of Italian Rococo. In 1969 part of the furnishings of the building, including the two canvases presented here, were purchased by the Milanese industrialist Alemagna, and in 1970 the paintings – set in gilded stuccoes in eighteenth-century style – went to decorate the walls of the historic Milanese restaurant. Il Gourmet in Piazza Duomo, owned by Alemagna, before reappearing on the art market (for a complete reconstruction of the history of the furnishings of Villa Chigi, see F. Petrucci, Artistic documents on the 18th century in the Chigi archive (part II), in : Bollettino d'Arte, n.114, 2000, pp.94–103). The canvases for Villa Chigi are among the most significant works in Paolo Monaldi's corpus. He is a painter who belongs to the tradition of Andrea Locatelli's Arcadian-pastoral painting, but updated in the Rococo style, probably due to the presence of French artists active in Rome in the first half of the 18th century. His paintings are distinguished by the finesse of the execution and by a "theatrical" representation of rural life, due to lively characters executed with gestural expressiveness. The serene and idealized tone of his country views is linked to the literary themes widespread during the period by the Arcadian Academy
