(Rome 1710 – after 1779)
A fortune teller and peasants in a landscape; and
Morra players and peasants in a landscape,
oil on canvas, 181 x 64 and 186.5 x 68.5 cm, framed, a pair (2)

Provenance:
commissioned by Cardinal Flavio Chigi (1711–1771) for the Salottino in Villa Chigi, Rome, circa 1767;
by descent to Mario Chigi Albani della Rovere (1832–1914), VII Principe di Farnese, Salottino in Villa Chigi, Rome;
by whom sold together with the Villa Chigi, 1885;
reacquired by Ludovico Chigi Albani della Rovere (1866–1951), VIII Principe di Farnese, Salottino in Villa Chigi, Rome, 1897;
by descent to his son Sigismondo Chigi Albani della Rovere (1894–1982), IX Principe di Farnese, Salottino in Villa Chigi, Rome;
from whom acquired by his uncle Francesco Principe Chigi Albani della Rovere (1881–1953), Salottino in Villa Chigi, Rome, 1919;
by descent to his son Mario Lodovico Principe Chigi Albani della Rovere (born 1929), Salottino in Villa Chigi, Rome;
alienated to the Istituto Commerciale Italiano, 1960s;
with Carlo and Marcello Sestieri, Rome, circa 1969;
Alemagna Collection, Milan, circa 1970;
art market, Italy;
where acquired by the present owner

Possibly Documented:
Entrata e uscita dell’Em.mo card. Flavio Chigi. Dal 9 gennaio 1769 al 28 febbraio 1777, Archivio Chigi, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, no. 816: ‘[123] A 12 detto (gennaio 1771)… A Paolo Monaldi Pittore scudi cinquanta m.ta pag.ti p. saldo di tutte le Pitture fatte p. servizio di S.E., comprese anche quelle, che sta terminando’ (see F. Petrucci, Documenti artistici sul Settecento nell’archivio Chigi (parte II), in: Bollettino d’Arte, no. 114, 2000, p. 111)

Literature:
R. Trinchieri, Una villa settecentesca poco nota: Villa Chigi, in: Amor di Roma, s. n., 1955, p. 418, p. 419 the first one illustrated as hanging in the Salottino of Villa Chigi (as Paolo Monaldi);
G. Incisa dell Rocchetta, Villa Chigi, in: Capitolium. Rassegna del comune di Roma, 1961, vol. 36, no. 8, p. 5 the first one illustrated as hanging in the ‘Salotto delle Bambocciate’, Villa Chigi, p. 6 (as Paolo Monaldi);
A. Busiri Vici, Trittico paesistico romano del ‘700. Paolo Anesi - Paolo Monaldi - Alessio De Marchis, Rome, 1976, pp. 140–142, figg. 145, 147, illustrated (as Paolo Monaldi)

The present paintings are registered in the Fototeca Zeri under nos. 77516 and 77514 (as Paolo Monaldi).

The paintings formed part of the furnishings of Villa Chigi, the prestigious residence built by Flavio II Chigi in 1763 on the Via Salaria near Rome. The vedutista Paolo Anesi and his collaborator Paolo Monaldi painted a large cycle of canvases depicting landscapes with figures for the cardinal, destined to furnish some of the rooms on the ground floor (the dining room and fumoir or salottino) and on the first floor of the building (the so-called salotto or small sitting room); the works were perhaps already finished in 1766, when the Villa hosted Pope Clement XIII, but payments to the two artists continued in the following years.

Monaldi’s landscapes, documented in the drawing room on the piano nobile by photographs, were accompanied by some panels with flowers painted by Ludovico Stern and a fireplace screen also decorated with country scenes. The villa’s furniture was largely commissioned from Nicola Carletti, in keeping with the style of the pictorial decoration, making Villa Chigi one of the most significant examples of the Italian Rococo.

In 1969, part of the building’s furnishings, including the two canvases presented here, was purchased by the Milanese industrialist Alemagna, and in 1970 the paintings – set within 18th-century-style gilded stuccoes – went to decorate the walls of the historic Milanese restaurant Il Gourmet in Piazza Duomo, owned by Alemagna, before reappearing on the art market (for a complete reconstruction of the history of the furnishings of Villa Chigi, see F. Petrucci, Documenti artistici sul Settecento nell’archivio Chigi (parte II), in: Bollettino d’Arte, no. 114, 2000, pp. 94–103).

The canvases for the Villa Chigi are among the most significant works of Paolo Monaldi’s corpus. He is a painter who belongs to the tradition of Andrea Locatelli’s arcadian-pastoral painting, but updated in Rococo taste, probably due to the presence of French artists active in Rome in the first half of the 18th century. His paintings are distinguished by finesse of execution and a ‘theatrical’ depiction of rural life, due to lively characters executed with gestural expressiveness. The serene and idealised tone of his country views is linked to the literary themes disseminated in the period by the Arcadian Academy.