Andries Both

ANDRIES BOTH (Utrecht, 1613 - Venice, 1642).
"Roman scene".
Oil on panel.
Preserves period frame with flaws and damage caused by xylophages.
Signed on the back.
Measurements: 19.5 x 16 cm; 30 x 27 cm (frame).
In this painting of Andries Both, outstanding representative of the group of the Bamboccianti, a scene of the popular Roman life is represented with acute observation of manners: several characters are grouped in front of the door of a modest house, among them two figures that are arranged around a rudimentary fire. The pictorial treatment, characterized by an earthy palette and a warm light that falls laterally, accentuates the intimate, everyday character of the moment. Both, faithful to his style, pays special attention to the natural attitudes and gestures of the characters, capturing with irony and realism the atmosphere of the vulgar and the immediate. The rough architecture, the improvised furniture and the faces marked by life underline the painter's interest in humble and marginal scenes, in which the dignity and humanity of the protagonists are revealed in the small acts of everyday life.
Andries Both was a Dutch genre painter who was part of the group of Dutch and Flemish genre painters active in Rome in the 17th century known as the bamboccianti, who painted scenes of the everyday life of the lower classes. The son of a Both glass painter, he was born in Utrecht and began his training in the workshop of Abraham Bloemaert, along with his brother Jan who became a renowned genre and landscape painter. Andries resided in Rouen in 1633 and later traveled to Rome, where his presence is documented from 1635 to 1641. He first shared a studio with a painter from Utrecht, named Jan van Causteren. In 1638 his brother joined him. In 1641, both brothers left Rome to return to the Netherlands.
Andries' work is characterized by the use of depictions of comic and outrageous character, mixed with the objectivity of reality very typical of the style, known as Bambocciata, due to the nickname of its creator, the Dutch painter Pieter van Laer, who was known in Rome as il bamboccio, meaning "ugly doll" or "puppet". Andries Both's genre paintings were also influenced by the older tradition of Pieter Brueghel the Elder, as well as that of the Flemish genre painter Adriaen Brouwer who had worked in the Dutch Republic for an extended period in the 1620s.