Pietro Righini
Turin, 1793 – 1856
Rural landscape
oil on canvas, 71×89,5
dated and signed: Righini Pinxit 1815
Set within a glade watered by a stream and framed in the distance by picturesque ruins, a towering tree dominates the scene, occupying almost half of the composition and casting its shade over groups of shepherds and animals portrayed in the course of their everyday rural lives. Above them, a sky heavy with rain-laden clouds reveals a distinctly Romantic sensibility. These elements, together with a barely legible inscription at the lower edge of the canvas – “Righini pinxit 1815” – may offer clues as to the painting’s authorship. It is indeed possible that the work may be attributed to the Turin-born painter Pietro Righini, a skilled landscape artist active in Savoy Piedmont during the early 19th century.
More closely aligned with the Romantic conception of landscape painting that emerged from the experiments of G.B. De Gubernatis and Massimo d’Azeglio than with the late Baroque legacy of Vittorio Amedeo Cignaroli, Righini’s works are distinguished by their masterly combination of luminous colour and dramatic chiaroscuro, as well as by the meticulous attention devoted to the figures that animate his imagined landscapes. Judging from the date inscribed on the painting, this appears to be an early work by the artist, already displaying the talent and freshness that would establish him as one of the most sought-after landscape painters in the region throughout the first half of the 19th century. Righini received numerous prestigious commissions, particularly from the House of Savoy, at whose court he was appointed “pittore paesista” (“landscape painter”) in 1829.