Late 17th-Century Italian School, Architectural Capriccio With Portico & Distant Mountain

Late 17th-Century Italian School, Architectural Capriccio With Portico & Distant MountainThis late 17th century Italian oil painting depicts a view with distinctive Italianate architecture including a building with an iconic portico and pediment. Popular in mid 17th century Rome, architectural ensembles of this nature are referred to as capriccios and generally works of imaginative fiction. Artists were at liberty to interpret a view as they wished, rearranging, resizing, and even redesigning entire buildings. The results were

immersed in European art - inspired by new environments and the emerging avant-garde

Year of creation: 1762

The portrait is signed

he was working for the aristocracy under the kind guidance of the Earl of Shrewsbury

figures and buildings

Alongside his duties as chaplain

He’s captured the light superbly well and you can almost feel an arctic chill in the air

Artist's Auction Highlight

Van Luppen describes this chilly autumnal day with skill and tonal mastery

the unusual sensuality between the twisting form of a white swan and a nude

He’s dressed smartly in a frock coat with a white shirt and black necktie

He was often inspired by these beautiful rolling hills