Andrea Casali

ANDREA CASALI (Rome, 1705-1784).
"Clelia before Porsenna", ca. 1737.
Oil on canvas.
Measurements: 208 x 294 cm; 229 x 314 cm (frame).

This large-format work is a masterful depiction by the Roman painter Andrea Casali, executed at the height of his career. The painting captures a famous episode in early Roman history that exalts bravery and civic virtue, a popular theme in the transition from Baroque to Neoclassicism.

The painting illustrates the legendary encounter between the young Roman girl Clelia and the Etruscan king Lars Porsenna, narrated by historians such as Titus Livy. During Porsenna's siege of Rome (508 BC), Clelia was given as a hostage. Showing extraordinary courage, she escaped from the Etruscan camp leading a group of hostage maidens and swam across the Tiber River back to Rome. The painting depicts the subsequent moment, when Clelia is returned by the Romans to the Porsenna camp to honor the treaty.

The composition is eminently theatrical and dynamic, focusing on the interaction of the two protagonists: Clelia, situated on the left and bathed in a powerful light that makes her the main focus, stands with a firm and determined posture. She wears a white robe and a sumptuous blue mantle that falls elegantly. Her gestures are eloquent. She stands explaining or defending her actions with special dignity. Behind her, other women and children, the hostages she freed, crowd around her, reinforcing the magnitude of her feat.

On the right, the Etruscan king is seated on an ornate throne, symbol of his authority. He wears armor, a helmet and a showy red cloak. Far from showing anger, his face and the gesture of his outstretched hand express surprise and admiration for the courage of the young woman before him. He is surrounded by his advisors and soldiers, whose various expressions, from curiosity to astonishment, contribute to the dramatic atmosphere of the scene.

Andrea Casali's style in this work is characteristic of late Roman Rococo with a clear leaning toward the emerging Neoclassicism. The grandeur of the scene, the dramatic use of chiaroscuro to model the figures and create depth, and the rich and vibrant color palette (especially the reds, blues, and golds) are a direct inheritance from the tradition of Baroque history painting. However, the choice of a Roman history subject that exalts virtues such as courage and patriotism, along with a certain idealization and restraint in the main figures, anticipates the neoclassical sensibility that would dominate European art a few decades later.

Andrea Casali was an Italian painter of the Rococo period. He was also an art dealer in England. He was born in Civitavecchia in the Papal States and studied with Sebastiano Conca and Francesco Trevisani. Until 1738 he was a decorative painter of Roman churches and in 1729 he was appointed Knight of the Golden Spur; hence in England he was called "the knight Casali". He traveled to England in 1741 and remained there for twenty-five years. He was a master of James Durno. Among his English clients were Thomas Coke , Earl of Leicester (1697-1759), and Alderman William Beckford. In England he held two auctions, which also revealed that he was an art dealer. He left England in 1766, after which he lived for some years in Rome, where he died in 1784.

Works by him are preserved in the Louvre Museum, Paris, in the museum of fine arts of San Francisco, in Museums and galleries of Leeds, in the Holburne Museum of Art, Bath, in the Accademia Albertina of Turin, among many other collections.