Emilian School, 17th century
Allegory of geometry and Allegory of music
(2) Oil on oval canvas, cm 66 x 52
With frame, cm 79 x 63
The two ovals represent two female figures identifiable thanks to the attributes they carry: the flute along with the singing birds and the compass with the square immediately suggest the allegories of music and geometry. As for the school of origin, we can identify it as the Emilian or Bolognese school of the 17th century, offspring of that Accademia degli Incamminati founded by the Carracci brothers in Bologna. Many artists had confronted the success of the Carracci and the Academy they founded, deciding to adopt the canons of a classicism expressed with a more modern and vibrant vein. The three brothers, together with painters of the caliber of Guido Reni and Guercino, inspired both their own and subsequent generations of Emilian artists, as can also be seen in these two allegories; the warm tones enveloped by an opaque golden light highlight the tones of the clothes and hair, while the light chiaroscuro delicately draws the facial features, rendered with an effective material consistency. Furthermore, the two paintings are stylistically close to other tondos that make up a series attributable to an artist with a culture close to that of Marcantonio Franceschini (1648-1729), a Bolognese painter, in which almost neo-Correggesque typologies can be found filtered through a more modern taste; the comparison between the faces of Correggio's Madonnas, such as the one called ''del latte'' kept in Budapest, and that of these two female figures finds more than one point of contact.
