Antonio Domenico Beverense (?, 1624/26 – Vicenza, 1694)
Pair of Female Portraits
(2) Oil on oval canvas, 38 x 28 cm
With frame, 48 x 38 cm
“He has precise drawing, unusual forms, beautiful composition. A diligent and worthy painter worth knowing; he has something of Guercino”: thus Luigi Lanzi referred, in his brief but flattering profile, to the qualities of the art of Antonio Domenico Beverense (?, 1624 or 1626 – Vicenza, 1694), noting, regarding a Marriage of the Virgin in the School of the Lame, now lost, a subtle influence from the Bolognese school. The figure of the artist has been re-evaluated in recent studies, particularly by Ugo Ruggeri, who has traced his secular production, previously overshadowed by misattributions, often to the better-known Pietro and Marco Liberi. Although superficially linked to the lessons of the Liberi, Beverense's training was eclectic. His most important Venetian canvases, the Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple and the Assumption of the Virgin (San Moisè), dated 1665, place his documented activity at a time of change in Venetian painting, heralding the abandonment of the "tenebrist" taste. His style was influenced by the "decorative current of Fumiani, Lefevre, and Chéron" and shows a tendency towards luminous drama and echoes of Tintoretto. Also dating from 1670 is a small Portrait of the curate Giambattista Vinanti, parish priest of San Pantalon, a work thought to be lost but still in situ in the church sacristy. Beverense was particularly appreciated by Venetian private patrons for his secular and allegorical subjects, often connotated, even explicitly, in an erotic sense. Several mythological works are attributed to him, such as Venus and Adonis (Gemäldegalerie, Dresden), The Toilet of Venus (Banca Intesa Collection), or the Allegory of Time Fleeting (Fondazione Magnani Rocca, Mamiano di Traversetolo): in these canvases, he demonstrates his propensity for academic compositions, often with figures seen from behind or forced into contortions, but with an "acute and accurate" attention to the definition of outlines and the rendering of flesh tones. It is in this vein that the two oval Female Portraits presented here could be placed, characterized by specific physiognomic features, such as the large, crudely outlined eyes, the contained and reserved expressions, the pointed nose, the well-kept hairstyles, and the typical dimple on the chin that characterizes so many female subjects in the Veneto painter's pictorial corpus. The last part of his career, before his death in Vicenza in 1694, is characterized by a slightly different production in the secular realm, with smaller figures, often scattered in vast and sometimes menacing landscapes. In this phase, his style approached the contemporary production of Giulio Carpioni. Examples of this connection can be found in works such as The Death of Leander and Diana and Actaeon, housed at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Caen. Beverense achieved a new formal refinement in this period with a lightening of colors, embracing the "mineral polish" of Carpioni's art. His taste in these years, the eighties and nineties of the seventeenth century, also showed a notable affinity with the Roman painter Girolamo Pellegrini, with a view to recovering Veronese's style. His particular epidermal classicism contributed to a style that, in some ways, remarkably anticipates certain late-17th-century academic "barocchetto," acting as a link between the declared Baroque of Pietro Liberi and preceding artists such as Gregorio Lazzarini and Antonio Bellucci
With Ars Antiqua it is possible to pay for all amounts up to a maximum of € 7,500 at ZERO INTEREST, for a total of 15 INSTALLMENTS.
Ex. Total. € 4,500 = Monthly installment € 300 for 15 months.
Ex. Total. € 3,600 = Monthly installment € 720 for 5 months.
For amounts exceeding € 7,500 or for longer payment terms (over 15 installments), we can provide a personalized payment plan.
Contact us directly for the best quote.
LIVE TV
– SUNDAY 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM Digital terrestrial 126 - Sky 824
– Streaming on our website www.arsantiquasrl.com and on our social media Facebook and Youtube
All works offered by Ars Antiqua are sold with a certificate of authenticity in accordance with the law and an accurate in-depth description.
It is possible to view the works directly at the gallery showroom in Milan, at via Pisacane 55 and 57.
We personally organize transport and delivery of works, both for Italy and abroad.
