ANTONIO CIFRONDI (attr. to) (Clusone, 1656 - Brescia, 1730) Allegory Oil on canvas, 95.5X71.5 cm Provenance: New York, Christie's, 4 February 2004, lot 85 The House Sale Antonio Cifrondi was among the most important protagonists of Lombard naturalistic painting between the 17th and 18th centuries and his training is still largely to be reconstructed. According to sources (Tassi, 1793), he was apprenticed to the mediocre Clonese painter Cavalier del Negro, about whom nothing is known. He was later able to benefit from a scholarship made available every year for three poor young men from Cluson who wanted to continue their studies in the liberal arts (Belotti, 1959). In Bologna, he is said to have been a pupil of Marcantonio Franceschini, but the influences of the Bolognese painter's manner are not perceptible, while his return to his home town is documented in 1687. The pictorial characteristics of his works consist of a diffuse luminosity and a chiaroscuro contrast in the relationship between the figure and the background, while the drafting is modulated on sometimes diaphanous liquids.