Master of the Fertility of the Egg

(Brescia, active in the 17th Century)
A grotesque scene with animals and dwarfs,
oil on canvas, 63.5 x 91 cm, unframed
Provenance:
Private European collection

The present painting, by the Master of the Fertility of the Egg, depicts dwarfs and caricatured animals, intent on frenetically re-enacting the activities of ordinary people in a manner poised between the absurd and the grotesque. The animals, dressed in the typical dress of the populace of the era, are entrusted with making evident the absurdity of human behaviour.

The qualities that characterise the master’s paintings are a total absence of a spatial dimension and perspective. The figures, which are often seen in profile, like cut-outs, are set against dark flat backgrounds. Lacking compositional perspective these silhouettes appear laid one upon the other, as if superimposed.

An unusual artist, the Master of the Fertility of the Egg derives his name from a canvas preserved in the Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin (inv. no. M. 1963-26). He was active in Brescia between the second half of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries. The Master is one of the most interesting exponents of that genre of painting called ‘Bambocciate’. He belongs among the followers of Faustino Bocchi (1659-1742).
Specialist: Mark MacDonnell