Antonio Calza (Verona, 1653-1725)
Battle between Christians and Turks
Oil on canvas, 79 x 119 cm
The use of bright and brilliant colors and the balanced compositional layout that animates the entire composition reflect the style and taste of the painter Antonio Calza (Verona, 1653-1725), who here chooses to reconstruct an intense clash between Christians and Turks. A knight emerges from the dense melee of combatants taking place in a mountainous setting, where the rocks are shrouded in a cloud of dust, continuing to the right along the slope to a jagged horizon line and a wide sky furrowed by clouds and masses of smoke released by artillery, which blur the profile of the mountains and the fortress in the background. This device imbues the scene with a suggestive spatial depth, thanks to the decisive figurative counterpoints coordinated by a progressive digression in perspective and exhibition meter.
Calza (Verona 1653 - 1729) was among the most established and skilled specialists of his time in military themes, emerging in the Emilian and Venetian regions during the last two decades of the 17th century and the first three of the following century. After initial training in Bologna, he left his father's house at the tender age of fifteen. Following a first period of production in Emilia, he then probably went to Rome to admire the works of Borgognone, the undisputed master in this field (two of his early works in the Museo di Castelvecchio in Verona are very close to Courtois). Subsequently, Antonio was active in various Italian cities, from Milan to Florence, and especially in Venice, where he married his third wife and opened a workshop, as well as in Vienna, where from 1712 to 1716 he was in the service of Prince Eugene of Savoy. Naturally, many of his paintings, as reported by B. Dal Pozzo (Vite de' Pittori, degli Scultori et Architetti Veronesi, Verona 1716), were completed for collectors in his native city, where he returned in 1675 after reconciling with his father, and where he established himself as the preeminent artist, giving rise to a prolific following. The rediscovery of Calza as a battle painter is quite recent, as he was completely overlooked by modern criticism until L. Magagnato's reconsideration in 1978, on the occasion of the Verona exhibition (Catalog: La pittura a Verona tra Sei e Settecento, pp. 143-149). The artist's catalog has significantly expanded since the 1980s, and since then the Veronese master has regained a position of absolute prestige in this pictorial genre. Calza's personal style is based on a bright chromaticism formed by patches of color, combined with a fluidity and immediacy of execution, marked by an accentuated expressive emphasis and a researched adherence to reality, supported by specific military expertise.
This painting can be compared with various reference works in the rich repertoire illustrated in the treatise on Calza, see the examples of paintings that have appeared on the art market and those in museums.
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