Landscape with Horseman and Warriors
attributed to Giovanni Battista Viola (Bologna 1576-Rome 1622)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1600 - 1622
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1450 x 2010 mm (57 1/2 x 79 in)
Order this imageCollection
Polesden Lacey, Surrey
NT 1246563
Caption
This picture is attributed to Viola, the first Italian painter known to work exclusively as a landscape specialist, although the damage it suffered in a 1960 fire makes it difficult to identify an author definitively. The composition leads the eye from the heroic figures in the foreground towards the waiting boat and thence out to sea via a winding river so as to evoke the great journeys recounted in the epic poems of Virgil and Tasso.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Landscape with Horseman and Warriors, attributed to Giovanni Battista Viola (Bologna 1576-Rome 1622), c.1600-22. An Italian ideal landscape showing a coastal scene with boats, trees and mounted on a three warriors in classical dress, one mounted on a white horse, halted on the bank of a river estuary; a boat is drawn up nearby and a stag can just be seen in the undergrowth at the right. Possibly a scene illustrating thr epic poem of Gerusalemme Liberata (Jerusalem Delivered) by Torquato Tasso (1581) or a scene from the Roman poet Virgil's Aeneid.
Provenance
The bequest of Margaret (Anderson) McEwan, The Hon. Mrs Ronald - later Dame Margaret - Henry Fulke Greville, DBE (1863-1942) from probate records linked with the donation of the property to the National Trust in 1943. This item found on the record for Polesden Lacey pictures, drawings etc., the Min Stairs, page 135.
Credit line
Polesden Lacey, The McEwan Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
attributed to Giovanni Battista Viola (Bologna 1576-Rome 1622) , artist Bonzi, Pietro Paolo (Cortona c. 1576 - Rome 1636) , artist previously catalogued as follower of Domenico Zampieri Domenichino (Bologna 1581 - Naples 1641), artist Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi, known as Il Bolognese (Bologna 1606 – Rome 1680), artist Agostino Tassi (Ponzano c.1579 - Rome 1644), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Pier Francesco Mola (Coldrerio 1612 – Rome 1666), artist