Bakewell, Vicar & Churchwardens of the Parish Church All Saints;

Rome, Mario Lanfranchi collection;

Parma, private collection;

Marco Voena, Turin (1990);

Turin, private collection.

Along with Jan Frans Van Bloemen, Andrea Locatelli was one of the most important landscape painters active in Rome during the first half of the 18th century. Work by both these artists is indebted to 17th century landscape painting, specifically to that of Claude Lorrain (1600-1982). Furthermore, their works mark an important period in the development of landscape painting which took place during the second half of the 18th century, when artists such as Claude Joseph Vernet and Hubert Robert travelled to Rome to study the models of Locatelli and Van Bloemen.

It can be noted that as early as 1723 Nicola Pio was already aware of the importance of Andrea Locatelli, evident in his publication Le Vite di Pittori Scultori et Architetti, where he wrote: “… poi con il suo bello ingegno e con i suoi talenti si pose a studier da sé, e Marine e Bamboccianti nelle quali ha havuto sempre il suo Genio”. His work was sought after by some of the most important Roman families and by the Papal court. Nicola Pio records how Locatelli “andasse continuamente operando per i Signori Romani, Inglesi e altri Forastieri”. Among the Roman collectors, the most important were the Cardinals Pietro Ottoboni and Alessandro Albani as well as the Princes Ruspoli and Colonna, for whom Locatelli painted more than 80 works “una stanza tutta dipinta a sughi d’erba e colori in dieci pezzi, o riquadri fra grandi e piccoli, e rappresentanti paesi”.

Landscape with Jacob’s journey back to Canaan represents the history of Jacob as told by the Book of Genesis (chapter 31). It depicts Jacob fleeing from Haran with his two wives Rachel and Leah and the flock of sheep which he stole from Laban. The painting was made together with a pendant representing a Landscape with Joseph being sold by his brothers (fig. 1), published by Andrea Busiri Vici in his catalogue raisonné of Locatelli’s paintings (Andrea Locatelli e il paesaggio romano del settecento, Roma 1976, n. 69). The two paintings share the same dimension and a similar composition, with a group of trees on one side giving space to a wide view of the Roman countryside, the effective protagonist of the two paintings.

Locatelli’s work played an important role in creating the myth of the Campagna Romana, a myth that finds his best description in French writer and historian François-René, Viscount Chautebriand’s words:

Rien n’est comparable pour la beauté aux lignes de l’horizon romain, à la douce inclinaison des plans, aux contours suaves et fuyants des montagnes qui le terminent … Une vapeur particulière, répandue dans les lointains, arrondit les objets et dissimule ce qu’ils peuvent avoir de dur et de heurtè dans leur forme … une teinte singulièrement harmonieuse maris la terre, le ciel et les eaux… Quelquefois des beaux images, comme des chars légers portés par le vent de soir avec un grâce inimitable, font comprendre l’apparition des habitants de l’Olympe sous ce ciel mythologique.

Francois-René de Chateaubriand, Lettre à M. de Fontanes sur la Campagne Romaine, Paris 1861.

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