Giovanni Battista Piazzetta

(Venezia, 1683 - Venezia, 1754)

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Oil on canvas

71.5x91 cm. Framed cad

This beautiful pair of oval paintings, with subjects related to everyday life, clearly manifests its belonging to the activity of Giovanni Battista Piazzetta and his workshop. This is attested by the refined play of chiaroscuro contrasts, the careful calibration of postures, and the delicate and vague emotional attitudes of the depicted youths. The Sleeping Peasant Girl replicates verbatim a famous canvas, also of oval format, kept at the Residenzgalerie in Salzburg, where she is paired with a Young Peasant with Hat. Entirely original, on the other hand, appears to be the other scene, with two young people close together grappling with a curious instrument that is not easy to recognize. Apparently this happy composition is not found in Piazzetta's production, but it is worth mentioning a small canvas formerly in a private collection in Treviso depicting two young men's heads side by side very similar to the central part of our painting.