Splendid pair of paintings, oil on canvas, measuring 33 x 43 cm without frame and 40 x 50 cm with frame, depicting two outdoor scenes with a multitude of characters and objects, in the typical style of Cornelis de Wael (Antwerp 1592 – Rome 1667).
Cornelis De Wael, son of the Antwerp painter Jean de Wael, and his older brother Lucas, a student of Jan Brueghel, moved to Genoa around 1610. He stayed in Venice from 1610 to 1620, the year he settled in Genoa, becoming a citizen in 1642. Between the first and second decades of the 17th century, the two brothers undertook a long journey to Italy, during which they stopped in Genoa before subsequently traveling to Rome.
The numerous works that can now be attributed with certainty to the hand of Cornelis, although his production must still be partly separated from that of the weaker and more repetitive workshop, allow us to observe how the Flemish artist, both during his long and prolific stay in Genoa and during his shorter stays in Rome, with "his historiated paintings of small, very graceful figures", tackled highly heterogeneous subjects such as religious themes, battles, festivals, and seascapes. Through a homogeneous pictorial language, he used to compose landscapes or complex architectural structures, sometimes born from his imagination, sometimes carefully studied from life, populated by figures defined by compact and meticulous touches, which move with ease and freedom.
The setting of biblical episodes in everyday life, where characters are often dressed in 17th-century attire, is certainly a constant theme in the artistic journey of the Antwerp artist, particularly appreciated by the Genoese aristocracy "who, in commissioning works of this type, never miss an opportunity to reiterate that nobility of rank is also accompanied by a nobility of spirit".
The careful chromatic choices, characterized by brown and silver tones that further enhance the innumerable shades of white, the rare touches of red or the vivid brushstrokes with which the sumptuous noble clothes are constructed, as well as the diffuse light that pervades the entire composition, combined with the meticulous definition of vegetation or architectural elements, are peculiar characteristics of Cornelis's language, attentive to the definition of the emotions of each character and a meticulous chronicler of pleasant contemporary events, as documented by our two marvelous canvases which perfectly illustrate the wonderful qualities and capabilities of this great artist, a narrator of serene episodes set in the countryside.
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Dr. Riccardo Moneghini
Art Historian
