Courtyard Scene

The painter, the undisputed master of Italian art in those years, here employs the canons of the genre scene, of which he was one of the most renowned specialists, showing us a glimpse of real life in eighteenth-century Bologna, an image that almost seems to be taken from the daily life of the humblest classes, represented with humanity and a touch of irony.

In the courtyard of a damp unhealthy house, an elderly woman, busy washing the laundry, is indignant at the brashness of the barefoot man, who stands near the wall to urinate. With an open mouth, she seems to be shouting an insult, and her hand looks as though it wants to hit him. An annoyed cat tries to scratch him.

In the background, in the shadows, a young mother is intent on feeding her child, and is turned slightly to look at the scene, amused.

Crespi applies the colour in rapid strokes and lingers on details to render the material consistency of things: from the stockings hanging out to dry to the gleam of copper in the few scattered tools, the wicker basket on the wall, and the old lintel in wood that strongly dominates the scene.