I happened by chance to see a small image of this painting yesterday and had to search a little while to find a larger one.
I had been searching for Italian paintings of The Dance of Death and this picture came up in the page margins of another image I had just sought and found.
Is it a domestic drama, or a domestic comedy ?
A comedy, surely.
I was intrigued by the eccentricities of perspective and by the gentle humour. At a guess, the painter seemed to be sharing a joke with his patrons.
Is there a medical sub-text ? The lady is notably pallid. Has a pregnacy just been diagnosed ?
The Wikipedia article about Giacomo Ceruti is rather short, but there are sufficient images to arouse the need for further inquiry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacomo_Ceruti
The question quickly arose ... why was an unspectacular yet highly competent society portraitist so much better at painting the poor and destitute than he was at portraying his wealthy patrons ?
Where did his enthusiasm come from ? His observations were so scrupulous and seem to indicate a deep sympathy for the poor.
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And then unexpectedly I found that the Getty museum have published a book on him only this year !
And annoyingly, their exhibition finished less than two weeks ago.
https://www.getty.edu/news/new-getty-volume-on-northern-italian-painter-giacomo-ceruti/
the Getty Museum's gallery text ...
www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/ceruti/downloads/ceruti_gallery_text.pdf
BUT THEN, A GREAT CONSOLATION ... YouTube have very recently uploaded a lecture by the excellent curator of the Getty Museum's exhibition, Davide Gasparotto ... HURRAH !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3lhRCJ0R9M
the paintings are quite large ... Davide Gasparotto thinks the paintings of the poor would have furnished country retreats rather than town houses ... i'm guessing they might have been in private chapels although i know nothing about italian country houses in the 1720s and 1730s ...
Early in his talk, Davide acknowledges that Ceruti's paintings of the poor are a continuation of a well-established genre... but then he goes on to examine differences and similarities of outlook ...
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ceruti's 1737 self-portrait dressed as a pilgrim suggests he may have been a pious follower of some very ascetic theology
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back to the comedy ... might the curved horn on the floor in the foreground be an 18th century stethoscope used hear to listen to a foetal heartbeat ? ... unlikely because the practice of ausculation was first documented in the 19th century, in france ... so it is more likely to be the hunting horn used to call those unruly dogs
so ... perhaps the scene isn't medical ... has the gentleman on the right returned from a walk in the park to find his neighbour in his wife's boudoir ? nope ... she wouldn't be so pale ... i think it possible we see a consultation interrupted by a huntsman ... in all probablity we will never know and so i might have to ask father christmas for the book ...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Giacomo-Ceruti-Compassionate-Davide-Gasparotto/dp/1606068369
... but until i can read it, idle speculation must prevail.
... to be continued ...
some subsequent findings ... a bit more biography & criticism, etc ...
https://arte.giunti.it/app/books/GG2023_ARTE0038/html/4
https://arte.giunti.it/app/books/GG2023_ARTE0038/html/10
https://arte.giunti.it/app/books/GG2023_ARTE0038/html/16
https://arte.giunti.it/app/books/GG2023_ARTE0038/html/40
and a link to the book itself ??? an incomplete google book sampler ...
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