Soldiers smoking and drinking

The Venetian painter Pietro Negri was born in 1628. Eschewing the Mannerism of the previous generation and particularly of Palma Giovane, Negri fully embraced the naturalism of the Baroque championed by Francesco Ruschi as well as his close friend Antonio Zanchi, with whose work Negri’s has often been confused. At the time of this painting’s sale in 1998 (loc. cit.), Professor Bernard Aikema proposed an attribution to Negri on the basis of a transparency, noting that Negri was evidently emulating the style of Pietro Muttoni, called Pietro della Vecchia, to whom the present canvas had formerly been attributed.

The subject of Soldiers smoking and drinking ultimately derives from Roman prototypes, in particular Caravaggio’s famous The Cheats (Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth). The Caravaggisti of subsequent generations frequently painted groups of coarse mercenaries, idling about in taverns, guardrooms, and darkened alleys, awaiting employment or quite simply any aggressive altercation available. These figures can be identified by the bits of armor they sport, often piecemeal, as well as other elements of military costume, often haphazardly. The drinker and smoker in the present work conjure an illicit and menacing image of contemporary low life, which likewise offers a moral admonition against the recklessness of youth. The figures, crowded into the pictorial space, add further tension to the scene, and to the sense that at any moment violence might ensue.