Lot 59: Giovanni Crivelli, called il Crivellino (?Milan -1760 Parma) A wooded landscape with heron, kingfishers, ducks and moorhens beside a pool

A wooded landscape with heron, kingfishers, ducks and moorhens beside a pool
oil on canvas
150 x 208cm (59 1/16 x 81 7/8in).

PROVENANCE:
A noble villa in Lombardy, from which acquired at the end of the 19th century by an old Milanese family and thence by descent to the present owner

Giovanni was the son of the still life painter, Angelo Maria Crivelli (?1672-1730, also known as Crivellino). The Italian art historian, Giovanni Lanzi, informs us that he worked at the court in Parma, where he died in 1760, although there is no record available of his activity for the Farnese. He must have been sought-after within the aristocratic milieu, since he was active in the 1730s for the Savoia at Stupinigi and received commissions from Count Carrara in Bergamo as well as from various Milanese noble families, such as the Visconti di Modrone.

It is quite likely that Giovanni began painting in his father's workshop and the works of both artists have been often confused in the past. Typical of the son's oeuvre is the scenographic setting based on the combination of still life elements in the foreground and the Veneto tradition of landscape in the background. A thick and vibrant impasto derived from contemporary Flemish examples also characterises his output. As Professor Ferdinando Arisi first noted, Giovanni seems to have combined the tradition of his father's workshop with that which was derived from both Jan Fyt and Frans Snyders, who were very popular amongst north Italian collectors at the time. He was also indebted to Felice Boselli, with whom he collaborated in the 1720s.