Period: 17th century
Price: € 3.000
Workshop of Cornelis De Wael (Antwerp, 1592 - Rome, 1667) Giving drink to the thirsty Oil on canvas, 40 x 65 cm Frame 51.5 x 76.5 cm Rectangular canvas with a horizontal development, attributable to a painter active in the workshop of Cornelis De Wael (1592-1667). The painting represents the second of the Seven Corporal Works of Mercy: Potum praebere sitientibus, giving drink to the thirsty (Mt, 25). At the gates of a Capuchin convent, built on the ruins of a Roman temple, numerous figures such as pilgrims, recognizable among those assisted by their short cloaks, staves, and shells, travelers, and the poor are given drinks by the friars, in an outdoor composition copiously crowded with figures. The canvas is related to Cornelis De Wael's composition on the same subject, now held in the collections of the Artistic Heritage of the Banco Popolare, part of a series dedicated to the seven Corporal Works of Mercy by the same author. The composition, reduced in format and panoramic vision, is indicative of the success that the series conducted by the Antwerp master, active for most of his career in Genoa, had in the contemporary and subsequent collecting scene.