Allegory of Winter
late 17th Century or 1st Half of 18th Century, oil, canvas, 35,5 x 45 cm
NG S 826, National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana
Winter, sitting on a heap of wood next to a snow-covered pillar, is protected by a simple tent on three poles. She is feeding a child with a ladle, with which she is scooping from a pot on a fire. Beside the first child is another which is feeding a dog. In the background at the right a crowd of figures is skating on ice.
This series of paintings of the four seasons was traditionally attributed to Giovanni Bevilacqua. It is possible that this might be a confusion with the name of the former owner of the paintings. The style of the series is typical of Venetian painting at the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century. The formal characteristics and many details of the treatment in these pictures are reminiscent of works which are generally attributed to Matteo de’ Pitocchi (Matteo Ghidoni, born ca. 1626 in Padua[?], died there in 1689). The colour scale also points in this direction. We must therefore attribute these paintings to an artist from the wider Veneto area, probably from Padua, but certainly not from Venice itself. Although some details, for example certain details in the figures of Summer and Autumn, indicate a knowledge of the allegoric repertoire of the late Mannerism at the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th, these paintings must be dated to the time between 1690 and 1710.
Restored: 1960, ZSV, Ljubljana.
Provenance: Probably from one of the castles near Velesovo; in 1866 the parish priest Franc Pustavrh sold this and the three paintings Cat. Nos. 56–58 to Edvard Strahl of Stara Loka; purchased by the Narodna galerija in 1930, old Inv. No. 465 (Summer, old Inv. No. 466, Autumn, old Inv. No. 467, Winter, old Inv. No. 468 – Giovanni Bevilaqua [?]).
Exhibitions: 1930, Ljubljana, no catalogue; 1960, Ljubljana, No. 51; (Summer No. 52; Autumn No. 53; Winter No. 54); 1983, Ljubljana, No. 26 (Summer No. 27; Autumn No. 28; Winter No. 29).
Lit.: Polec 1930b, p.179, Cat. No. 420 (Summer p. 180, Cat. No. 424; Autumn p. 180, Cat. No. 422; Winter p. 180, Cat. No. 426 – anonymous, 18C); Polec 1931, p. 53; DS 1931, XXXXIV, Fig. Suppl. No. 8 (Summer reproduced as Allegory of Autumn); Cevc 1960, p. 28, Cat. No. 51 (Summer Cat. No. 52; Autumn Cat. No. 53; Winter Cat. No. 54 – Carlo Giovanni Bevilacqua; the parish priest Franc Pustavrh was said to have received the four paintings from Strmol Castle); Zeri [& Rozman] 1983, pp. 117–118, Cat. and Fig. Nos. 26–29 (Venetian School, second half 17C or first half 18C).