Alessandro Magnasco

Italian artist Alessandro Magnasco trained as a portraitist and as a painter of figures for religious subjects, but he is known for inventing dramatic genre scenes staged within architectural fantasies. The decaying interior of a vast Roman public building provides the setting for this narrative. Its massive arches frame darkened spaces in which clusters of sketchily painted bandits are camped, surrounded by weapons and looted goods. Flickering strokes of lighter pigment fall on the figures’ tattered clothing and animate their gestures, illuminating the murky recesses of the ruins.