ANTONIO MERCURIO AMOROSI (Comunanza, 1660 - Rome, 1738) Portrait of a little girl with tambourine Oil on canvas, 26.5X21.5 cm Provenance: Milan, private collection Datable to the last decade of the 17th century, the painting can be compared with the portraits of children published by Claudio Maggini on the recommendation of Federico Zeri (cf. Maggini, pp. 100-101). The dating is confirmed by the lively and baroque drafting, but also by the careful description of the jewellery worn by the girl. The illustrative typology is typical of the artist, who depicts scenes of everyday life mainly related to the world of childhood. Amorosi's training took place with his fellow countryman Giuseppe Ghezzi and continued with the latter's son, Pier Leone, and his successful career is testified by Lione Pascoli, his biographer and admirer, reporting a notoriety that spread throughout Europe and 'he had many and many commissions from different cities and past the mountains he also had many outside'. Having said this, Amorosi's art connotes the evolution of bamboozling and genre painting following the example of Eberhard Keilhau known as Monsù Bernardo (Helsingør, 1624 ; Rome, 687) with whom he was often confused. It was thanks to the studies of Roberto Longhi (1934/1938) and Federico Zeri that a correct delineation of the catalogue was achieved, in spite of Eugenio Battisti's still erroneous critical stance (E. Battisti, Antonio Amorosi e non Monsù Bernardo, in Commentari, V, 1954, I, pp. 79). Nevertheless, this abbreviated excursus of studies obliges us to reflect on the value attributed to Amorosi by the best 20th century critics investigating the developments of genre painting in the Baroque period and on the deliberately anti-academic character of an artist who showed himself to be equally skilled in 'heroic' and history painting, as Antonella Pampalone points out so well (cf. A. Pampalone, Nuove considerazioni su alcuni aspetti della pittura sacra di Antonio Amorosi, in Proposte e ricerche. Economia e società nella storia dell'Italia centrale, no. 54, a. XXVIII, 2005, pp. 148-189). The work is accompanied by an expert opinion by Mina Gregori. Reference bibliography: R. Longhi, Monsù Bernardo, in La Critica d'Arte, III, 1938, pp. 121-130 F. Zeri, Eberhard Keilhau, una tela e una tavola, in Paragone, 1953, no. 45, pp. 155-164 A. Lo Bianco, Alcune considerazioni sull'attività di Antonio Amorosi, in Antologia di Belle Arti, 7-8, 1978, pp. 286-294- C. Maggini, Antonio Mercurio Amorosi pittore (1660-1738), Rimini 1996, p. 108-109, n. 18 c. O. Virgili, in Antonio Amorosi. Vita quotidiana nel 700. Exhibition catalogue, Venice 2003, p. 58, n. 9 Antonio Mercurio Amorosi, 1660-1738. La cultura figurativa del '700 tra le Marche e Roma, exhibition catalogue edited by C. Maggini and S. Papetti, Rome 2016, ad vocem