Alessandro Magnasco
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This dramatic landscape with women washing is painted by Italian artist Alessandro Magnasco. He was born in 1667 and died in 1749, the period between baroque and rococo.
He soon concentrated on certain motifs; biblical scenes and depictions of the lives and events of monks and nuns, tramps and soldiers, and nocturnal burial scenes. And, landscapes with women washing.
Our painting is a typical Magnasco. It depicts a landscape. In the foreground three women are washing while a forth woman, carrying a large gilded amphora on her shoulders, is walking away, probably having fetched some water. On each side of the painting trees bow down over the scene. The colour is brown-black, the women are painted in blue and white. Only the amphora shines in golden yellow, like gold. The foreground – with the women totally engaged in their work – Magnasco places against a background alpine landscape of blue and white. It is not only the colours that separate the latter. He also paints the background in another way with broad, jagged, vibrating brushstrokes.
The artist creates a strong contrast between the calm foreground, with the washing women, and the torn, jagged background. One can also wonder what is going on behind the tree on the right. This part of the painting mostly resembles an enormous tidal wave of unspecified material, on its way like a catastrophe of nature to wash in over the women, and sweep them away out of the painting.
One explanation for the drama in Magnasco’s art is that his paintings witness a time when all was not quite as idyllic as one might think. Another explanation is a fascination during the 18th Century for experiences of nature tinted with romantic fear. Many foreign travellers on their way to Italy were forced to travel over the Alps. They often described the feeling of insignificance or littleness when confronting the huge alpine mass as terrifying, but not unpleasant.
Alessandro Magnasco has been seen as a genius who exploited the fear of the times. His work is to be found in the great museums of the world – and in Linköping’s County Museum.
