ANDREA LOCATELLI (Rome, 1695 - 1741) Capriccio with equestrian statue Oil on canvas, 46X62 cm Provenance: S. Mc Donald Collection New York, Sotheby's, 5 June 1981, lot 38 (as in the manner of Giovanni Paolo Pannini) Andrea Locatelli was born in Rome in 1695. Of his training with his father, Giovanni Francesco, and his uncle, Pietro Lucatelli, born in Rome in 1634, we have little information. We also know of an apprenticeship period with the marine painter Monsù Alto. Later, he was with the landscape painter Fergioni until 1712, probably in the company of Paolo Anesi (Rome, 1697 ; 1773). After this date, Locatelli was active in full autonomy and accredited with the most famous Roman families, such as the Ruspoli, Albani, Ottoboni and Colonna, who were his main patrons, but not forgetting the Savoy commissions through Filippo Juvarra, who ordered him to paint the north and west facades of the Rivoli Castle. The painter fit into the difficult artistic environment of the capital at his best, producing fantasy landscapes with an archaeological character following the example of Giovanni Ghisolfi, van Bloemen, realistic and Arcadian views, up to depicting compositions following the example of Salvator Rosa and popular scenes that influenced Paolo Monaldi. The landscape under examination, which can be dated to the third decade of the 18th century, on a scenic layout reminiscent of Dughetti and Rosi, well expresses the painter's landscape sensitivity, visible in the pictorial ductus and in the rarefied and clear atmosphere, very close in its results to the works of Paolo Anesi and to the best 18th-century evolution of Van Bloemen's examples. The work is accompanied by a critical card by Alessandro Agresti. Reference bibliography: A. Busiri Vici, Andrea Locatelli, Rome 1976, ad vocem