16th Century Animals Painting Oil on Canvas by Crivellino

Oil on canvas, 84 x 111 cm

With frame 112 x 139 cm

Thanks to the comparison with his autograph works, which will be mentioned, the present painting can be traced back to the hand of the Milanese Giovanni Crivelli (Milan,? – Parma, 1760) called Crivellino to distinguish him from his father Angelo Maria, also a painter and known as il Crivellone (news from 1662 – 1730 ca.).

The confirmation of Crivellino’s paternity comes mainly on the basis of a comparison with some paintings in the Cova Minotti collection in Milan, depicting a wild boar attacked by dogs (signed and dated “Gio. Crivelli fec.1720”) and a bear attacked by dogs. Strict similarities are visible in the setting of the work, in the composition and in the re-proposition of the same types of dogs and bison, in particular in another work of the same collection depicting an Assault on the bison.

These works testify in Crivellino’s corpus to the reference to international hunting culture, in particular to the Flemish one, almost with the intention – as Arisi points out in the aforementioned monograph dedicated to the two Crivellis – to compete with those models. Canvases much appreciated by contemporaries and by the great aristocracy; Lanzi recalls Crivellino, among other things, who was very active at the Farnese court in Parma.

The canvas in question depicts a fight between dogs and a bull in which the expressive power and strength that Crivellino’s painting can achieve are fully manifested. The three dogs, caught in different poses, growling, with their mouths open seem to surround the bull in distress. The brushstroke is fast, yet defined, and vibrates, transmitting further excitement to the dynamism inherent in the scene. The rendering of the coats, of great quality, seems alive, making the idea of ??animal hair real. The bull, in difficulty, seems to turn its head ready to collapse to the ground. The dimensions of the fighting animals dominate the surrounding landscape, focusing attention on the fight, even if the architectural ruins and the distant sky fade are of great charm.