Giovanni Michele Graneri (Italy,1708-1762) Bambocciata (Farmers dancing)

Giovanni Michele Graneri (Italy, Turin 1708-1762)
Bambocciata (Farmers dancing in front of the inn)

The painting, made in oil on canvas, depicts a moment of celebration where some peasants or commoners dance and drink in front of an inn.
The style and quality indicate the autograph of a well-known Piedmontese bambocciante: Giovanni Michele Graneri, one of the protagonists of the fruitful Savoy season of this pictorial genre. Graneri was for a time a parallel and then a continuation of the work of the head of the school Pietro Domenico Ollivero, of which, according to contemporary sources, he was a pupil.
The characters depicted, such as the group of dancers in a circle, the old man with the stick, the bassoon player, the drunk farmer sleeping on the barrel and some observers who look out from the doors, windows or balconies, are characteristic of this kind of representation that is called "bambocciata". The bambocciata is a kind of painting aimed at representing, with vivid figurative and animated effects of light and color, popular scenes of the street, taverns, market, gypsies, in open contrast with the great official baroque painting. It spread widely throughout the eighteenth century and in Piedmont, among the greatest exponents are Pietro Domenico Ollivero (Turin, 1679 - 1755) and Giovanni Michele Graneri (Turin, 1708-1762). The concave shape on the lower side of the frame suggests that the canvas was originally placed in a boiserie in the noble rooms of a noble palace.
Giovanni Michele Graneri was born in Turin on 28 September 1708 to a family of modest economic conditions. On 21 August 1747 he married Francesca Margherita Canicoschi from Turin, with whom he had three children and one daughter. He died on 26 February 1762. The first dated works that we know date back only to 1738, and probably his best known work is the large canvas with the Market of Piazza San Carlo of 1752 (Turin, Museo Civico d'Arte Antica), in which stands out a very accurate description of the square, such as to be credited with landscape painting, then repeated in the other large canvas depicting the Herb Square Market (Sarasota, Florida, John and Mable Ringling Museum). The eighteenth-century sources say he was a pupil of Pietro Domenico Ollivero, the most important and famous painter of genre scenes in Turin, and Graneri’s youthful paintings are strongly affected by the influence both in the general layout and in the rendering of the figures. Like Ollivero, Graneri is part of the trend of the painting of bamboccianti that in Turin had been known through the work of both Jan Miel in the mid-seventeenth century and with the paintings of other Flemish painters, such as David Teniers, called the Younger.

The painter denounces de visu knowledge of some prints from copper engravings taken from works by David Teniers, from which he draws many motifs and subjects; however, he draws only a few elements from them. Graneri in fact practices sophisticated readings of other people’s works, presenting personal interpretations. It absorbs from the Teniers, and from Ollivero, certain architectures that have a Nordic inspiration, the setting of the scene, the old beggar with the stick, the subject leaning or asleep to the barrel, the characters dancing, the inevitable dog, a subject that faces the window. Graneri is also concerned to make the real liveliness of the scene with bright colors and funny details, without dwelling too much on the appearance of the figures, which are similar to each other. Unlike Ollivero, the painter does not want to meditate on the human events he describes, but have fun and make ironically the life that flows around him, exasperating sometimes certain aspects until their deformation.
Graneri’s works are distinguished by the wealth of figures with witty looks, genre scenes and characters engaged in everyday life actions that the author returns with freshness and masterful attention. His works testify to the richness and the social variety that was possible to meet in the Turin of the Savoy and are considered valuable artistic documents as well as historical sources of considerable importance.
We apologize for translation errors. Please contact to have the expertise in Italian