The Four Seasons

The painting shows a clear difference in execution between the figures - attributable to Giovanni Reder - and the landscape, to be ascribed to Jan Frans van Bloemen. Giovanni Reder, son and pupil of the better known Christian, 'completed his most significant works for the Rospigliosi [... and became] a true pictorial chronicler of the various festivities organised by the Rospigliosi' (G. Sestieri, Repertorio della pittura romana della fine del Seicento e del Settecento, Turin, 1994, vol. I, p. 156). In the 'Feast for the return of the "mozzatore" in the garden of Palazzo Rospigliosi all'Esquilino' in Rome, Museo di Roma (1747), groups of people dancing, arguing, playing or quarrelling can be seen among the dense crowd. The paintings on offer here reconfirm Reder's taste for the exact annotation of picturesque and playful situations: the woman unbalancing the man intent on drinking in 'Autumn' or the man placing a crown of flowers on the head of a maiden in 'Spring'.

From a landscape point of view, the four paintings denote a formal commitment that goes far beyond Reder's inclinations and expresses a full adherence to the Arcadian classicism typical of Jan Frans van Bloemen. In fact, the most effective comparisons seem possible with the friezes with Lazio landscapes in the Palazzo Borghese in Piazza di Spagna (Rome, ca. 1715-20), or with the two similarly themed ovals, en pendant, in the Palazzo Ruspoli (Rome, of identical date to the previous ones: cf. A. Busiri Vici, Jan Frans van Bloemen, 'Orizzonte', e l'origine del aesaggio romano settecentesco, Rome, 1974, pp. 103-106, figs. 110, 112-113). While it is known that van Bloemen collaborated with figure painters such as Placido Costanzi, Filippo Lauri, Carlo Maratta, Giuseppe Passeri and Pompeo Batoni, no examples of collaboration with Giovanni Reder seem to be known to date.