Architectural Capriccio - Gennaro Greco (1663-1714)

Architectural Capriccio
Gennaro Greco the "Mascacotta"
(Naples,1663-1714)

Oil painting on canvas
Ancient golden frame

Canvas 93 x 61
Frame 117 x 82

Very good condition

This beautiful canvas depicting a complex architectural whim presents all the stylistic characteristics of the famous Neapolitan baroque school.

At the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, a large group of excellent artists distinguished themselves for the production of magnificent paintings with imaginative and spectacular architectural compositions.

The work proposed here, performed in the early 18th century, is an excellent example of the skill of Gennaro Greco, one of the most valid representatives of the Neapolitan baroque school specialized in these extremely complex and highly theatrical caprices.

Gennaro Greco (Naples, 1663-1714), known as Mascacotta due to his face disfigured by a sunburn suffered at a young age, created his canvases with a very severe and no-frills approach where very imposing columns near port landscapes, they stand out against the blue skies.
The elongated figures that enliven the scenes are reminiscent of the characters of Nordic painting and are never preponderant in the painting as a whole but simply make it more alive, leaving the monuments the role of protagonists.

Note the exceptional three-dimensional effect that the Author manages to obtain thanks to a perfect perspective view and a marked play of light and shadow highlighted by the monumentality of the buildings.

The notable depth is obtained instead from the sequential view beyond the columns, of a fortified village, further away a bridge and finally, where the gaze is lost, the silhouette of a mountain, increasingly blurred due to the atmosphere.

The work is in excellent condition and is complete with a beautiful antique gilded frame.