Alessandro Magnasco called Lissandrino

(Genoa 1667 - 1749) attributed

"Fantastic Landscape"

Oil on canvas

Measurements 92 x 120

Contemporary frame 97 x 126

This fascinating painting depicting a Fantastic Landscape, presents all the pictorial characteristics of the famous Genoese artist Alessandro Magnasco, called Lissandrino for his short stature. According to the typical dictates of his landscape painting, it is set in a forest with fairy-tale tones but veiled dark and disturbing. Strange characters, described with unmistakable features, wander in the woods while two inevitable friars rest in the cool on the bank of a stream. Illuminated by a sliver of light between the branches of the trees, a ruined castle on a cliff.

The large canvas, while respecting all the pictorial prerogatives of Magnasco, expresses a less dramatic atmosphere than his usual works with a much more accentuated luminosity. This, together with a notable scenographic commitment, leads us to consider the painting as the fruit of a moment of inner peace of his restless spirit. The result is a work of excellent workmanship, particularly interesting and pleasant.

Magnasco remains one of the most brilliant and talented authors of 18th century Italian painting and is present with his most significant works in all the most important international museums among which we mention the Uffizi, the Louvre, the Prado, the Hermitage and the Metropolitan.

In the canvas presented here the stylistic and chromatic analogies with one of his works exhibited in Tokyo at the National Museum of Japan are evident. (See last 2 photos)