Alessandro Magnasco (c.1667 - 1749) & Antonio Francesco Peruzzini (c.1650 - 1724)

This painting is a collaborative work of two distinct northern Italian painters: The author of the figures of praying monks is Alessandro Magnasco, a native of Genoa, who spent most of his life in Milan and in the service of the Medicis in Florence. He is known as an excellent portraitist, but also the painter of fantasy landscapes and genre paintings. Characteristic of his painting style are quick brush strokes and the play of light. The wild landscape is the work of Antonia Francesca Peruzzini, originally from Ancona. He specialized primarily in landscapes. Cooperation between the two artists lasted from the 1690s until Peruzzini’s death in 1724. The work comes from the collection of Count Mikhail Dmitrievich Botourlin, the son of the famous Russian collector and scholar, General Dimitri Buturlin Petrovic (1763-1829), who in 1817 moved from Russia to Florence. On the back of the canvas there is an inscription: "c.te Michel Botourlin / 1839" and on the frame the number "542: - probably the inventory number in his collection. (expert opinion: Anna Orlando, Genova)