NARRATOR:
The 18th-century Genoese painter Alessandro Magnasco was known for his depiction of intense emotion. He rejected the lightness and frivolity of the Rococo style that characterized so much of his age, and instead worked in an idiosyncratic manner, with forms fragmented by quick, darting brushstrokes.
In his early years, Magnasco specialized as a figurista, adding small human figures into the landscapes of other painters. Around 1709 he moved to Milan, working for the local aristocracy and experimenting with new, evocative subjects.
In Interior with Monks from about 1725, the figures appear eroded by shadow, and the swiftly applied brushstrokes reverberate with nervous tension. The color is restricted to browns, blacks, greys and whites, applied with great brio over a dark-red ground. Touches of white radiate from the gloom in which the monks seem conjured up like specters by an overactive imagination.
They seem to be warming themselves by an open fire. But what is the actual subject here? In Milan, Magnasco actively participated in the learned debates of elite intellectual circles. As new Enlightenment ideas arrived from Northern Europe, favorite topics included opposition to corruption in the monastic orders, religious intolerance and social prejudice. This scene may reflect the artist’s spiritual and political sympathies, as well as his penchant for the spectacular and macabre. His highly charged painting style has often been compared to that of the 16th-century master El Greco, while his fascination with the darker side of life anticipates the realism of Goya in the early 19th century.
Friars Around a Hearth (formerly Interior with Monks)
c. 1725
Alessandro Magnasco (Italian, 1667-1749)
On View
In a dimly lit room, friars dressed in gray and brown habits, or robes, seek warmth around a smoky fire. They belong to a Christian religious order, likely the Capuchins, which required its followers to take a vow of poverty. The artist’s dynamic brushstrokes create a sense of movement, as if we can see the friars arranging themselves on benches and stretching their limbs. Throughout, Alessandro Magnasco inserts moments of humanity and even humor. In the foreground a friar uses his rope belt as a cat toy, and near the upper right corner of the hearth, an elderly man rests an arm on his companion’s knee. Typical of Magnasco’s ambivalent depictions of religious groups, this painting neither mocks nor glorifies austere monastic life, but rather invites the viewer to explore multiple interpretations.
Details
- Artist Name: Alessandro Magnasco (Italian, 1667-1749)
- Title: Friars Around a Hearth (formerly Interior with Monks)
- Date: c. 1725
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 36-1/2 x 52-1/4 in. (93 x 132.7 cm)
- Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation
- Accession Number: F.1973.34.1.P
- Copyright: © The Norton Simon Foundation
Object Information
[Stephan Bourgeois, Paris and New York, sold ca. 1911 to];
Sir William van Horne (1843–1915), Montreal, Canada, by descent to his heirs;
Margaret van Horne (grand-daughter-in law to Sir William), sold 1967 to;
[Mortimer Brandt, New York];
[Edward Speelman, London/A.G., Zug, Switzerland, offered 25 February 1972 and subsequently sold 6 November 1973 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Sir William van Horne (1843–1915), Montreal, Canada, by descent to his heirs;
Margaret van Horne (grand-daughter-in law to Sir William), sold 1967 to;
[Mortimer Brandt, New York];
[Edward Speelman, London/A.G., Zug, Switzerland, offered 25 February 1972 and subsequently sold 6 November 1973 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Alessandro Magnasco 1667 - 1749
- Palazzo Reale, 1996-03-21 to 1996-07-07
All Consuming: Art and the Essence of Food
- Norton Simon Museum, 2023-04-14 to 2023-08-14
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- Bober, Jonathan, et al., A Superb Baroque: Art in Genoa, 1600-1750, 2020, fig. 14 p. 87 ; p. 86 (ill.)
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