PIETRO DOMENICO OLIVERO (Turin, 1679 - 1755) Market Scene Oil on canvas, 68X94.2 cm Provenance: Cologne, Lempertz, 14 November 2015, lot 1553 (as Pietro Domenico Olivero) Milan, private collection Pietro Domenico Olivero was a painter for the court of Savoy, painting genre scenes in bambocciante taste, particularly markets and peasant feasts. His compositions reflect the Flemish influence and in particular that of Jan Miel (1599-1663), an artist who, after his stay in Rome between 1630 and 1640, transposed Van Laer's narrative taste to the Piedmontese capital. The canvas under examination depicts trades and we can recognise the barber, the knife-grinder and the pot seller in which the painter delights in describing the characters and their minute activities with remarkable refinement and a luminous, greasy drafting, here enhanced by beautiful conservation. It is a cross-section of real life depicted with the spirit of a chronicler, yet softened by a fully rocaille sensibility. The work is accompanied by a critical card by Alberto Cottino. Reference bibliography: A. Cifani, F. Monetti, I Piaceri e le Grazie. Collezionismo, pittura di genere e di paesaggio fra Sei e Settecento in Piemonte, Turin 1993, I, plates 211, 212, 213, 214, 217 A. Cottino, Pietro Domenico Olivero: dodici scene del quotidiano nel Settecento, San Mauro Torinese 2008, ad vocem A. Cifani, F. Monetti, Pietro Domenico Olivero, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 2013, Vol. 79 (cited)