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| Francesco Maffei Adoration of the Shepherds before 1660 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Egidio Martini, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice |
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| Francesco Maffei The Continence of Scipio ca. 1650 oil on canvas Castello del Buonconsiglio, Trento |
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| Francesco Maffei Esther before Ahasuerus ca. 1650 oil on canvas Castello del Buonconsiglio, Trento |
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| Francesco Maffei Jacob's Dream before 1660 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Egidio Martini, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice |
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| Francesco Maffei Mucius Scaevola before Lars Porsenna ca. 1655-60 oil on canvas Palazzo Pretorio, Prato |
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| Francesco Maffei Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard before 1660 oil on canvas Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona |
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| Francesco Maffei Perseus beheading Medusa ca. 1650 oil on canvas Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice |
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| Francesco Maffei The Way to Calvary ca. 1645-50 oil on canvas Palazzo Pretorio, Prato |
"Francesco Maffei's fluid style combined the richness and splendor of the Baroque, the elegance and exaggeration of Mannerism, and his own flair for the visually dramatic. He probably trained in Vicenza with his father and with a local Mannerist painter. Active in Vicenza for most of his career, he also left intermittently to work in other Italian cities, including Venice, Rovido, and Brescia. Maffei specialized in civic allegories, elaborate machines that glorified the region's dignitaries. He painted religious works as well. Maffei painted with a nervous and rapid brush in flashes of brilliant color, often achieving a hallucinatory effect. . . . Maffei left Vicenza in 1657 and settled in Padua, where he died of the plague."
– from curator's notes at the Getty Museum
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| Alessandro Magnasco Ecce Homo ca. 1710 oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Alessandro Magnasco Landscape with Gypsies and Washerwomen ca. 1705-1710 oil on canvas Indianapolis Museum of Art |
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| Alessandro Magnasco Landscape with Gypsies and Washerwomen (detail) ca. 1705-1710 oil on canvas Indianapolis Museum of Art |
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| Alessandro Magnasco St Ambrose barring Theodosius from Milan Cathedral ca. 1700-1710 oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Alessandro Magnasco St Ambrose barring Theodosius from Milan Cathedral (detail) ca. 1700-1710 oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Alessandro Magnasco St Augustine and the Child on the Beach (Allegory of the Mystery of the Holy Trinity) before 1749 oil on canvas Palazzo Doria Tursi, Genoa |
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| Alessandro Magnasco St Augustine and the Child on the Beach (detail) (Allegory of the Mystery of the Holy Trinity) before 1749 oil on canvas Palazzo Doria Tursi, Genoa |
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| Alessandro Magnasco The Tame Magpie ca. 1707-1708 oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
"Alessandro Magnasco was born in 1667 in Genoa to the moderately successful painter Stefano Magnasco. After his father died prematurely, Alessandro was sent to Milan to learn commerce. Instead, Alessandro induced his Milanese patron to cover the expenses of an apprenticeship with the esteemed painter Filippo Abbiati (1640-1715), probably around 1680. By the 1690s, the young Magnasco had competed his training and established himself as a portrait painter. He was known as Lissandrino in his own time.
This phase of his career must have been short-lived, however, because already by 1695, the date of his first signed work, Magnasco was painting scenes from contemporary life. His subjects and his lively, almost burlesque figures owe much to the prints of Jacques Callot (1592-1635) and Stefano Della Bella (1610-1664). Like them, Magnasco began creating scenes that defy easy classification as either history paintings or genre, with smaller figures set in lush landscapes, lavish or spare interiors, as well as in classical ruins."
– from the biographical sketch at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
