FRANCESCO TREVISANI
(Capodistria, 1656 – Rome, 1746)
The education of the Virgin
oil on canvas, cm. 129 diameter
Dating to the last decade of the 17th century, the painting has recently been attributed to the late-Baroque painter Francesco Trevisani. Specifically, it is believed to have been created in the years immediately following the artist’s move to Rome, a period still marked by a strong use of chiaroscuro, a technique he learned in his youth and later abandoned in his mature years. The painting depicts the religious episode of the “Education of the Virgin”, drawn from apocryphal sources about Mary’s childhood, a subject popularized in the Baroque era by painters such as Diego Velázquez and Peter Paul Rubens. Trevisani’s work shows Saint Anne, the Virgin’s mother, with accentuated elderly features, in the act of educating her daughter, initiating her into reading and study. To Mary’s left, a thoughtful Joachim is visible, while above, two cherubs observe the scene.
Of Istrian origin, Francesco Trevisani trained in Venice, first in the workshop of Antonio Zanchi, from whom he inherited a taste for dynamic compositions and dramatic use of chiaroscuro, and subsequently with Joseph Heintz the Younger. From the latter, as remembered by the biographer Lione Pascoli, Trevisani «learned drawing, coloring, and his noble, soft, and supple impasto», also developing a clear predilection for “genre” painting. His relocation to Rome, while bringing the artist a certain fame, also led him to progressively abandon his initial Venetian stylistic matrix. He instead embraced a composed and refined Rococo style, characterized by pathetic and graceful tones.