PIERO FORNASETTI, CIRCA 1950S

Fornasetti's landscape panels are clearly steeped in both the pastoral and the sublime landscape traditions of Italian painting and printmaking. The framing of the trees in the foreground, the atmospheric perspective and the hint of a restful meadow all recall the pastoral scenes of Claude Lorrain. But nature's ominous side is captured in the craggy openings in the earth and the steep climb to the remote village on the hilltop, as Fornasetti perhaps alludes to the master of the sublime, Salvatore Rosa.