Francesco Zuccarelli (1702-1788), Circle of - Pastorella a riposo - NO RESERVE

The refined eighteenth-century oil on canvas painting presented here offers a remarkable testimony of pastoral painting in a late-Baroque taste, from the circle of Francesco Zuccarelli: it portrays a young peasant girl in an idyllic pose of repose, deftly integrated into a classical landscape.

The figure, depicted barefoot and laid against a proportioned rocky backsupport, wears a shirt with pale and rustling voluminous sleeves, partially covered by a vermilion-colored drapery of notable chiaroscuro; the right hand holds a bucket, the left rests gracefully on the knee, turning a serene and idealized gaze toward the observer.

Beside the girl, the presence of sheep laid on the ground confirms the bucolic genre iconography, while the background unfolds between tree-framed scenes and historicized architectures, among which a cylindrical tower of clear classical-ruinist memory stands out and a portion of a fortified village.

The work reveals a painting technique carried out with successive glazes that confer extraordinary transparency to the flesh, alternating fluid washes with more tactile, vibrant brushstrokes in the details of the wool and the rock.

The work is distinguished by the balance of geometric composition, by the softness of a diffuse and silent light that envelops the scene, and by the refined color palette in warm, earthy tones, presenting itself in excellent condition with an era-appropriate craquelure and an original patina that enhance its historical-artistic value.

The painting was restored at the end of the last century.

It comes from a Brescia residence.

Accompanying the work is a more recent and patinated gilded frame, offered as a tribute.

Dimensions: 74 cm x 56 cm.