Room 3
The canvases dating 17th and 18th centuries now held in this room are evidence of the interest for the theme of Battles in baroque painting.
The battle scene genre especially developed from the 17th century and was greatly appreciated by private commissioners, aristocratic families and collectors. As well as for the still-life paintings and the marine scenes displayed in the adjacent room, battle paintings depicting chaotic fights and clashes between knights and horses, set in hilly landscapes with bridges and watchtowers, increasingly assume ornamental value.
Battle paintings Battle paintings
Many painters started a business in copying and imitating leading painters like Salvator Rosa or Jacques Courtois called Bourguignon, so that nowadays – only being able to investigate through stylistic means – it is very hard to distinguish their copies from the originals. Even the paintings here on display are difficult to attribute: they can only be summarily divided into schools.
Only the small canvas depicting a Landscape with a battle scene was assigned by Sandro Bellesi to the Sienese painter Giuseppe Pinacci, for its quick, mellow and colourful brushstroke, which characterizes other works of this artist.
Most of these paintings, including those in the next room, are part of the Martini collection, bequeathed to the Misericordia e Dolce Hospital by Giovanni Martini in 1855, when he was its superintendent, and then brought to the Municipality of Prato in 1895. The Palazzo Pretorio Museum dedicated a section to the Martini Gallery, a very interesting case of private collection, consisting of a rare nucleus of genre paintings with different provenance. Among them is a small group of battle scenes painted on copper-plate attributed to Pietro Graziani.
Image gallery
Last update: 17 december 2024, 10:51