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Premium BERNHARD KEIL known as MONSÙ BERNARDO
(Helsingor, 1624 - Rom…
See original version (Italian)
BERNHARD KEIL known as MONSÙ BERNARDO
(Helsingor, 1624 - Rom…
See original version (Italian)
Lot no. 59
Description
BERNHARD KEIL known as MONSÙ BERNARDO
(Helsingor, 1624 - Rome, 1687)
Allegory of the Five Senses
Oil on canvas, 96.5X67 cm
Bernhard Keil known as Monsù Bernardo came to Italy from his native Denmark, stayed in Venice from 1651 to 1654, then in Bergamo, in Romagna and finally in Rome from 1656. His critical fortune was immediate, so much so that Filippo Baldinucci dedicated a biography to him in his 'Notizie de' professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua' (Florence 1728, VI, pp. 510-516), considering him a painter of great artistic fortune, whose paintings were in demand throughout Europe. Keil depicted old and young, peasants and artisans, caught in simple gestures, with naturalistic sensitivity. These are portraits of everyday life, where protagonists rarely appear in elegant dress. The drafting is soft, fluid, but capable of sincerely describing faces marked by the sun and old age, without ever transcending into the crude realism of Caravaggio. This inclination was important for the development of Venetian dark painting and one can imagine a dialogue between the works of the northern artist and the Genoese Giovanni Battista Langetti. Lastly, a hint at the meaning of these images is in order: it is easy to guess the allegory of Autumn because of the wine, but also the five senses; in fact, the image alludes to touch through the gesture, taste and smell by imagining the sour taste of wine, while sight and hearing are represented by the pouring. The style of the work, its characteristics and measurements are also compared to those in the Corsini Gallery in Rome, depicting Winter and Autumn, which can be dated to the middle of the sixth decade and were painted for the Podestà of Bergamo, the Venetian patrician Giancarlo Savorgnan, suggesting the dating of our work during the painter's stay in Bergamo.
Reference bibliography:
M. Heimburger, Bernhard Keilhau, known as Monsù Bernardo, Rome 1989, p. 155
L. Laureati, in Da Caravaggio a Ceruti. La scena di genere e l'immagine dei pitocchi nella pittura italiana, exhibition catalogue edited by F. Porzio, Milan 1998, pp. 336-337
See original version (Italian)
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