Pietro Antonio Silverio Magatti

(Varese, 1691 - Varese, 1767)

The painter who spent his apprenticeship in Bologna. He frequented the workshop of Gian Gioseffo del Sole, Bologna 1664/1719) where he was able to absorb the flows of Bolognese painting of the time and assimilate everything that frequent contacts with other painters offered him. In fact, high-level artists such as Felice Torelli, Francesco Monti, Donato Preti, G.B. passed through Gioseffo's workshop. Grateful, Cesare Mazzoni etc.

Varese will be the launch pad of ours where every church commissions works from him and soon his notoriety will cross the provincial borders to reach Milan.

The work in question is significant of the numerous Madonnas by Magatti, of which he has made numerous versions and we can affirm work referring to the period of full maturity.

In it we notice a particular realization and a pictorial scan based on applications of blue and gray-blue tones, bleaching and pervaded by a cold light which contrasts with the pink complexion of the face and hands.

It is thus highlighted and exalts the interiority of the Virgin who exudes pain, almost physical. At the same time there is an intense spirituality that makes it intangible and mystically metaphysical. We find in an apparently simple work a pictorial fluency and a compositional skill that is summed up in the light of the blues, the lightness of the shapes and the softness of the fabrics: an elegant taste of the early Rococo.