MATTEO GHIDONI known as MATTEO DE' PITOCCHI (Florence, 1626 - Padua, 1700) Market scene Oil on canvas, 82X124.5 cm Provenance: Rome, Finarte, 12 June 1979, lot 61 (as Matteo Ghidoni) Active in Padua from the mid-17th century, where he was enrolled in the Fraglia in 1674, Matteo Ghidoni is known for his popular compositions depicting Pitocchi, hence his nickname. His production with a sacred character was also conspicuous, and we recall the numerous works he produced for the Basilica of Sant'Antonio and the Church of Santa Maria dei Servi, in which his remarkable chiaroscuro tension, close to that of the Venetian tenebrosi, emerges. However, the painter's fame is linked to genre subjects, where his knowledge of the models of Callot and the Roman Bamboccianti emerges, leading critics to hypothesise his Florentine training (cf. Gregori, 1961). We can also assume that the presence in Veneto around the 1950s of Eberhard Keil, known as Monsù Bernardo, may have influenced ours, and this is a likely hypothesis given the Nordic character of the work presented here, suggesting a similar date of execution. Thus, Luigi Lanzi's words come back to the fore in order to understand this peculiar predilection for Ghidoni's pictorialism, 'whose greatest talent was to depict beggars, whose heads and even paintings exist in the galleries of gentlemen in Venice, Vicenza, Verona and elsewhere'. It can be deduced, then, that the collectors of the time held these subjects in high regard, with scenes set in an open space or in landscapes that fade away bordered by a scenic backdrop of architectural ruins. Reference bibliography: M. Gregori, Nuovi accertamenti in Toscana sulla pittura caricata e giocosa, in Arte antica e moderna, IV, 1961, pp. 411-416 R. Pallucchini, La pittura veneziana del Seicento, Milan 1981, pp. 287-289