Bernardo Monsú

BERNARDO MONSÚ (Denmark, 1624 - Italy, 1687).
"Hunter.
Oil on canvas. Re-coloured.
It has restorations on the pictorial surface.
It has a 19th century frame.
Measurements: 98 x 72 cm; 124 x 96 cm (frame).
In this canvas the author shows us a scene that seems to be taken from the daily life, a costumbrista scene, but that nevertheless keeps a deeper allegorical meaning. The main character is a young hunted man holding his gun, the bust-length figure in the foreground gazes at a point outside the composition with an absent, frightened expression, so that the artist focuses much of his attention on capturing the character's psychology. Costumbrista painting is a genre in which popular types and attitudes, behaviour, values and habits common to a specific group of the population, region or class are described by means of a satirical, nostalgic or narrative description of the environments, customs, clothing, festivals and entertainments, traditions, trades and representative types of a society. The idea of costumbrismo arose from an attempt to understand reality, or more precisely, reality understood in a particular way, from a specific point of view.
Born in Helsingor, Bernhard Keil began his training as a pupil of the Danish painter Morten Steenwinkel. He subsequently settled in Amsterdam, where he trained with Rembrandt between 1642 and 1644. He then worked in the studio of Hendrick Uylenburgh between 1645 and 1648, and between 1649 and 1651 he had his own studio. In 1656 he made a trip to Rome, where he is documented until 1687, the date of his death. During his years in Italy he also worked in Bergamo and Venice. His style reveals the influence of Jan Lievens initially and later of the Italians Pietro Bellotti, Antonio Cifrondi and Giacomo Francesco Cipper. Among his best known works are those for the chapel of San Canuto in Santa Maria Traspontina in Rome. In addition to religious themes Keil also executed allegorical and genre scenes. Today the works of Bernhard Keil are in some of the world's most important collections, including those of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Netherlands Institute for Art History and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, among others.