Circle of ALESSANDRO MAGNASCO (Genoa, 1667 - 1749)."Saint Eremite".Oil on canvas. Glued to panel.It presents faults and restorations.Measurements: 37,5 x 22,5 cm.Due to its formal characteristics we can place this work in the circle of Il Lissandrino, nickname of Alessando Magnasco, Italian painter of the last Baroque. He is particularly remembered for his stylised and fantastic landscapes and genre scenes, although he also tackled religious themes. His personal style is characterised by fragmentary forms constructed through rapid brushstrokes and brilliant points of light. Born in Genoa, the son of a minor painter, Magnasco trained first as a pupil of Valerio Castello and later in Milan in the studio of Filippo Abbiati. Apart from the time he spent in Florence working for the Grand Duke Cosimo III (1703-09 or 1709-11), Magnasco remained in Milan until 1735 when he returned to his native Genoa. During his Milanese period he often collaborated with other painters in the Central European manner, painting figures in the landscapes of Carlo Antonio Tavella and the ruins of Clemente Spera. His personal style, which earned him the title of "Romantic painter" a century after his death, has obscure and disputed origins. Some suggest the influence of the loose brushstrokes of his Venetian contemporary Sebastiano Ricci, the Genoese Domenico Piola and Gregorio de Ferrari, although in fact these three artists may themselves have been influenced by Magnasco. The late 16th- and early 17th-century Milanese Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli ("Il Morazzone") may also have been influenced by Magnasco, due to the emotion that his works convey. In some of them, however, he refers to the Romantic landscapes of Salvatore Rosa and Claudio da Lorena, and his figures of beggars have been compared to those of Giuseppe Maria Crespi. Magnasco's works are now in the Museo del Prado, the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, the Louvre in Paris, the Kunsthistorisches in Vienna, the Metropolitan in New York and other leading institutions in Europe and America.