The wedding dance

Federico Andreotti demonstrated his prodigious talent from an early age, entering the Academy in his home town of Florence at the age of fourteen and winning his first prize there only two years later. At first dedicating himself to fresco painting, he was to gain a growing reputation for the type of decorative picture that a new and constantly expanding group of international collectors found so appealing. Thus Andreotti depicted elegant ladies in silks and satins, dashing suitors with jauntily angled caps, lavishly decorated interiors that often betray the influence of the classical and pretty peasants in rustic harmony.

It is to this last group that the present work belongs. Andreotti perfectly displays the richness and vibrancy of a simple village wedding dance, filling his scene with intense colour and fluid movement. The artist delights with a wealth of incidental detail, from the rich golden light at the upper left, to the pair of chickens strutting out of the scene at the lower right. On the left, a group of young women look upon the couple's first dance with delight while the groom's cohorts concern themselves with business of merry-making at the adjacent table.