Quattro dipinti inediti di Agostino Scilla a palazzo Graneri a Torino

• Autores: Arabella Cifani, Franco Monetti
• Localización: Paragone. Parte arte, ISSN 1120-4737, Nº 103, 2012, págs. 42-47
• Idioma: italiano
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• Resumen

  • During his lifetime, the painter Agostino Scilla (Messina, 1629-1700) was also a famed naturalist, scientist, philosopher and antiquarian. Sources record his brief sojourn in Turin in 1679, and while in Rome at the end of 1687 he painted two canvases for the Palazzo Reale in Turin, with figures of Fortitude and Justice, still in situ. In Turin his art was of interest not only to the sovereign but also to the extremely powerful family of the Conti Graneri della Rocca. Four oval overdoor canvases have been identified in the Palazzo Graneri in Turin; these masterpieces represent the philosophers Epicurus and Heraclitus, the poet Homer and the geographer Ptolemy, and should be dated to about 1680, although the date of their arrival in Turin (either before or after Scilla´s commitments for the Savoy court) is unclear. Appropriate conservation work could offer a clearer reading of the paintings, which is currently hindered by blackened layers of varnish.