Alessandro Magnasco (Genoa 1667-1749) and Clemente Spera (active Lombardy c. 1661-1730)

This beautifully preserved canvas has been recognized by Anna Orlando as among the first collaborative works produced by Alessandro Magnasco and Clemente Spera, dating to around the end of the 17th or the very beginning of the 18th century. In this early period, Magnasco specialized as a figurista, creating small figures to be inserted in the landscapes and architectural settings of other artists, such as Clemente Spera, who was a celebrated painter of perspective effects. The ruinous architecture and slender figures can be compared with other early collaborative works by Magnasco and Spera, such as Christ and the Adulteress in the Pinacoteca Civica, Forlì, which dates to the early 18th century and is executed in wider format, and Ruins with Soldier and Musicians at Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA, which is almost identical in size to the present canvas.