ANIMALS (text page)
The aristocratic enthusiasm for hunting can be considered one of the most important reasons for the success of paintings containing dead or live animals during the 17th century. To this "sporting" matrix must be added the allegorical value attributed to many animals, the symbols of particular virtues and propensities, or even alluding to exceptionally developed senses (e.g. sight, for birds; smell, for dogs). The painting of animals in action may appear to be a contradiction with the meaning of "still" life, but this ambiguity only served to confirm the difficult and belated affirmation of the term. In effect, this is a genre with an avowedly Flemish matrix: the prototypes were established by Flemish and Dutch painters, many of whom were also active in Italy and well-represented in the aristocratic art collections of various cities. Works by Italian animal painters began to be registered already prior to 1630. It is significant that the first diffusion of these subjects was in fact in Genoa, the artistic context closest to the Flemish models, thanks to masters such as Sinibaldo, Scorza, Anton Maria Vassallo, and Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Il Grechetto). They were all specialised also in depicting live animals: birds, courtyard and farm animals, reptiles, and even ferocious or exotic wild beasts. The repertory of the Venetian brothers, Giovanni Agostino and Niccolò Cassana, was generally restricted to small courtyard animals, especially feathered ones. The painting of animals found an interesting application in the "genre" painting of 18th-century Lombardy, from Ceruti to Londonio..