Shepherds and washerwomen at the river - Italian school18th century

Shepherds and washerwomen at the river
Domenico Brandi (Naples, 1684 – Naples, 1736) workshop
Oil on canvas
1st half of the 18th century
Carved and perforated frame
Canvas cm. 76 x 103 Frame 105 x 135
Excellent condition

Large canvas depicting a bucolic scene set on the banks of a watercourse in the Roman countryside. The protagonists of the painting are two washerwomen busy rinsing their clothes and two shepherds with a large long-horned bovine who rest and cool off at the edge of the river.

The scene is particularly pleasant for the climate of great serenity in an environment far from the frenetic life of the city, where silence and quiet reign.

One of the interpreters of this kind of works was the Neapolitan Domenico Brandi (Naples, 1684 – Naples, 1736), who moved to the capital at a young age, and learned the lesson from the great master Philipp Peter Roos, known as Rosa da Tivoli.

He stood out for his excellent pictorial skills, first working in Roos's workshop and then collaborating with him to help him create a notable number of works following the notable success and fame achieved by his Master with a continuous request also from foreign collectors.

The extraordinary commercial success of this type of landscape and the death of the German master in 1706 pushed Brandi to open his own workshop to continue the path he had undertaken.

The painting presented here must be attributed to one of his valid pupils who stands out for a splendid and lively palette, as well as for a notable ability in three-dimensional rendering thanks to a perfect distribution of light and shadow.
The figures in the foreground stand out from the thick vegetation that has grown among the ruins, which, when backlit, clearly delimits the main scene and allows us to glimpse the villages on the hills illuminated by the sun through the mist.

The canvas is in excellent condition, enhanced by an important wooden frame, carved, perforated and gilded.