Venetian School, 18th Century, a set of four (4)

Allegories of the four seasons,
oil on canvas, each 72 x 57.5 cm, framed, a set of four (4)

Provenance:
Private European collection

The present paintings represent four women in the guise of allegories of the four seasons.

The personification of Spring holds a basket of flowers, while others ornament her hair; Summer holds sprigs of corn and wears them in her hair, while the elegantly dressed figure of Autumn holds a basket of grapes and plums. Winter wears furs and warms her hands by an ornamented container used for hot coals.

The four personifications are distinctive for their pictorial quality and their compositional elegance. The woman emblematising Autumn, whose refined dress is decorated with lace which is especially well represented, does not look at the viewer like the other three women, but instead attentively turns her gaze to the left. The portrait-like intimacy of the paintings leads us to believe that they are four women, presumably members of an aristocratic family portrayed in allegorical guises. These features recall the sensibility with which Pietro Rotari painted his so-called testine throughout the course of his career in the Veneto, and at the courts of Europe.

The present Allegories also recall the paintings of another Venetian artist, Jacopo Amigoni, a celebrated portraitist who alongside official commissions also executed works of a more intimate and private nature, such as his Portrait of a young lady with a puppy from a British private collection (see A. Scarpa Sonino, Jacopo Amigoni, Soncino 1994, pp. 118-119).

The theme of the four seasons enjoyed significant success throughout the eighteenth century, not only in painting, but also in the fields of poetry and music. Indeed, numerous compositions treated the theme of the seasons, often following a mythical declination and emphasising their perfectly cyclical nature, thereby suggesting the perfection of the universe. This joyful and carefree attitude still saw humanity as both perfectly at one with society and nature. Such sentiments were reflected in the habits of the Venetian nobility, who would spend certain seasons of the year in the country. Indeed, Venetian villas are richly decorated with subjects related to themes connected with their surrounding agricultural settings. The frescoes of Giovanni Battista and Giandomenico Tiepolo at Villa Valmarana, Vicenza, are celebrated examples appealed not only for their allegorical meanings, but also for their decorative qualities.

In this regard, the activity of Rosalba Carriera is also significant: especially during the 1720s when she received many commissions for paintings representing the four seasons, such as the four pastels of Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter in the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg (see B. Sani, Rosalba Carriera 1673-1757. Maestra del pastello nell’Europa ancien régime, Turin 2007, pp. 129-130).