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| Title | Italian Seascape with Rocks and Figures | |
| Collection | Southampton City Art Gallery | |
| Artist | Attributed to Marini, Antonio (Italian painter, 1668-1725) Previously attributed to Ricci, Marco (Italian painter and draftsman, 1676-1730) |
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| Date Earliest | possibly about 1720 | |
| Date Latest | possibly about 1725 | |
| Description | The Venetian painter Antonio Maria Marini specialised as a painter of battle scenes and imaginary seascapes, which like the Italian Seascape with Rocks and Figures in the Southampton collection, aim to convey a sense of terror, while keeping the viewer at a safe distance. The overall source for such imaginary scenes is to be found in the works of Salvator Rosa (1615-1673). However, influences closer to Marini may include the work of his contemporaries, the Genovese, Alessandro Magnasco (1667-1735) and the Venetian, Marco Ricci (1676-1730) to whom this painting, like a group at Temple Newsam House, now given to Marini, was previously attributed. In their seascapes both Magnasco and Ricci adopted Rosa's dramatic view of nature but pushed it to an extreme bordering on theatre, just as Marini has in this work. Such paintings were entirely in keeping with the taste of the time: on seeing a Ricci seascape Dr Johnson expressed excitement and awe before §the terrifick grandeur of the tempestuous ocean§. Taken from a high viewpoint placing the viewer at a safe distance, Marini's Italian Seascape shows three men struggling with a rope on a rock precariously close to the raging sea, which is tossed into great waves against a massive rocky outcrop to the right. The figures heighten the drama and invite a sense of empathy by actually appearing to be threatened by the storm. To the left, the coastline of amorphous jagged mountains with castles perched above the sea extends into the distance. The loose Rococo technique used by Marini in the foreground is typical of Marco Ricci, while the strange mountain range in the distance recalls similar rock formations painted by Gianantonio Guardi (1699-1760) in the background of some of his works. | |
| Current Accession Number | SCAG 12/1967 | |
| Subject | marine | |
| Measurements | 86.5 x 132.6 cm cm (estimate) | |
| Material | oil on canvas | |
| Acquisition Details | Purchased from the Lasson Gallery, London, 1967, for £4,000 (Chipperfield Fund), as by Marco Ricci. | |
| Provenance | Private collection, USA. | |
| Principal Exhibitions | 16th, 17th and 18th Century Old Masters, Lasson Gallery, London, 1967, cat. no. 22, ill., as by Marco Ricci; Pictures from Southampton, Wildenstein, London, 1970, cat. no. 15, ill., as by Marco Ricci (catalogued by Denys Sutton). | |
| Publications | B. Nicholson, review of the Lasson Gallery exhibition, The Burlington Magazine, October 1967, p. 596; Gaunt, W., ‘Autumn Old Master exhibitions', Apollo, October 1967, p. 308, ill. p. 309, as related to the series at Temple Newsam House; Wright, C., Old Master Paintings in Britain, London, 1976, p. 172, as by Marco Ricci; Luckett, H., Landscapes: An Anthology from Southampton Art Gallery, 1979, no. 13, ill., as by Marco Ricci; Southampton Art Gallery, Illustrated Inventory of Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, Southampton, 1980, p. 70, ill. p. 69 as by Marco Ricci; Proni, M. S., Antonio Maria Marini, l'opera completa, Naples, 1992, no. 2.9, ill., as whereabouts unknown and unpublished; Wright, C., Renaissance to Impressionism: Masterpieces from Southampton City Art Gallery, London, 1998, p. 102, no. 53, ill. p. 53, as by Antonio Maria Marin. | |
| Rights Owner | Southampton City Art Gallery | |
| Author | Francesco Nevola | |