Hot Pamono Pietro Della Vecchia, The Alchemists, Oil on Canvas, 17th Century, Framed

Pietro Della Vecchia (Venice, Italy, 1603 – Vicenza, Italy, 1678)
Title: The Alchemists
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: without frame 73 x 97 cm – with frame 90.4 x 114.3 x 6 cm

Expertise by Professor Egidio Martini

Fairs: The International Biennial of Antiques in Florence 2024 (BIAF, Biennale Internazionale dell’Antiquariato di Firenze)

Publications: Il male. Esercizi di pittura crudele, exhibition and catalogue curated by Vittorio Sgarbi, (25 February – 26 June 2005), Torino, Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi, pp. 157, 332-333.

Pietro della Vecchi (1603-1678) was an Italian painter who trained in Vicenza, probably under the guidance of Alessandro Varotari (1588-1649), called il Padovanino. He was a very prolific and versatile painter who worked in many genres and created portraits, genre scenes and grotesques. It is indeed a grotesque subject that is represented in this painting. Despite the grotesque and deformed forms of the portrayed subjects, pictorially the painting is harmonious and beautiful, and the colours are vibrant. The painting, like other similar works by the painter, was conceived during the height of the artist’s maturity. This penchant for exaggeration, even the grotesque, was central to della Vecchia’s mature style. The scene depicts three alchemists who are working on the transmutation of “base metals” (e.g., lead) into “noble metals” (particularly gold). The scene is in fact set inside a laboratory where we can easily see two nuggets of gold and an ampoule full of a red liquid which could be identified as the elixir of life.