Remarks:
The series with Hunting scenes are set near the Castle of Moncalieri, where Cignaroli worked at the end of the 1770’s. The paintings show a obvious relation with the famous series of Hunting scenes now in the Accorsi Foundation, Turin, but who earlier hung in the Castle of Carpeneto.
The paintings in the Fondazione Accorsi have been published in the exhibitioncatalogue “Vittorio Amedeo Cignaroli, un paesaggista alla corte dei Savoia e la sua epoca”, by Alberto Cottino, Turin 2001 cat 40-45. Prof. Cottino describes them as a ‘manifest of the art de vivre in the eighteenth century, typical of the higher classes from the ancien régime’, and proposes a date in the artist’s maturity.
The series with the Scenes of village life is complementary with the former and illustrates the happy flow of village life, as, perhaps, perceived by the higher classes.
A series of such a large number of paintings which illustrates the habits of two of the principal classes in eighteenth century society is hard to find in Italian painting. Also rare, but in the work of Vittorio Amedeo Cignaroli, is the dominant position of the architecture in the compositions relating to the Scenes of village life. Therefore this rare series is an important addition to the known oeuvre of Cignaroli and a beautiful example of the high-decoration in the eighteenth century.
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