Workshop of Francesco Monti, known as il Brescianino (Brescia, 1646 – Piacenza, 1703) Pair of battle scenes (2) Oil on canvas, 59.5 x 74.5 cm With frame, 75 x 88 cm The pair of canvases in question depicts a clash between horsemen with firearms. The brilliant armor of the combatants stands out against a cloud-laden sky, in front of the profile of a city and an evocative natural landscape. The scene is captured in the foreground, according to a typical trick of battles painted in Northern Italy in the second half of the seventeenth century, and, in particular, by Francesco Monti and members of his school, in order to make the viewer feel like a direct witness to the scene they are witnessing. This turns out to be one of the key characteristics of Brescianino's production, in addition to great chromatic vivacity, the play of various perspectives and careful scenic direction. A peculiarity of the painter and the members of his circle is the representation of the combat in the foreground, described with chromatic vivacity and careful scenic direction. The episode of the white horse semi-fallen to the ground with the dismounted rider, as well as the clash of two characters in the center, are elements that recur in the Brescianino's repertoire, as can be seen in works such as the Battle Scene of the Pinacoteca Stuard or the Battle of Palazzo Rivella. Francesco Monti, known mostly as Il Brescianino or as Il Brescianino delle battaglie, was born in Brescia in 1646. Pellegrino Antonio Orlandi (1704), who was his first biographer, informs that he had the painter Pietro Ricchi from Lucca as his teacher. All subsequent literature has accepted the news, mostly hypothesizing that the apprenticeship took place during Ricchi's Venetian sojourn, placed in the third quarter of the 17th century. The total absence of data on Monti's youthful activity, however, makes it almost impossible to evaluate the influence of Ricchi's style in his formation and, on the other hand, it is not easy to identify derivations from the master in subsequent production. Monti was also a student of Jacques Courtois, known as il Borgognone, as it appears from Orlandi himself and from a letter sent to Monti by his friend Carlo Giuseppe Fontana in 1694, reported in the monograph dedicated to the artist of Brescian origins by Arisi (1975, p. 34). The magisterium of il Borgognone, although the chronological and geographical circumstances are ignored, must have played a decisive role in Monti's perfection as a battle painter. The difficulties in delineating a certain catalog of his work, however, in the absence of a sufficient quantity of documented paintings, are also reflected in the definition of this artistic relationship: symbolic of the influence of il Borgognone on il Brescianino is the diptych of Battles of the Accademia dei Concordi of Rovigo, attributed for the first time to the artist originating from Brescia in 1981 by Romagnolo. During the formative phase, the artist carried out numerous trips that led him to various locations of the Peninsula: particularly significant was the one to Naples, where he had the opportunity to observe firsthand the work of Salvator Rosa, which strongly influenced his entire pictorial production. Fundamental works to define and understand the stylistic characteristics at the base of Brescianino's production are the six paintings of the Rocca dei principi Lupo di Sorgara, the Battle of the Sanvitale Museum of Fontanellato and the Skirmish between horsemen of the Farnese Palace of Piacenza. Having reached full artistic maturity, Brescianino permanently entered the service of the Farnese in 1681: numerous are the works, mainly of war subject, made by the artist for the centers of Parma and Piacenza in the last twenty years of the seventeenth century. Particularly appreciated at the Farnese court, the artist was able to build a prolific workshop in Parma, in which figures such as Giovanni Canti, Ilario Spolverini, Angiolo Everardi, called il Fiamminghino, and Lorenzo Comendich were formed. Monti's paintings are characterized by large spaces «that are lost in smoke and dust», by the tangle of armed men in the foreground with dismounted horsemen and horses rearing up in the last instant of life. In addition to the battles, which certainly constitute the most substantial and interesting segment of his production, the painter executed religious-themed paintings and seascapes in which one sees the influence of Pieter Mulier, called Il Tempesta, with whom he had a relationship of deep friendship. After giving life to an active and successful workshop, the artist died, probably in Piacenza, in 1703 (Sestieri, 1999, p. 206). The analogies with the style of il Brescianino lead to attribute the pair of paintings to a direct member of his school, among which we remember Giuseppe Nicola Domenico Monti, “who followed in his father's footsteps” (Orlandi, 1661) and Giovanni Canti, who probably was the author of Joshua stopping the sun, previously assigned to his teacher (Arisi 1975, n. 26).