Winter

The cycle dedicated to the Four Seasons was painted by Marcantonio Franceschini for one of the rooms in the Belvedere Palace in Vienna, the residence of Prince Eugene of Savoy Prince of Carignano between 1716 and 1717, as the payments entered in the painter's notebook bear witness.

In all four paintings, made in a simple elegant style, there are those criteria of naturalness and clarity that make Marcantonio Franceschini one of the most prominent Bolognese painters of the Arcadian cultural movement.

In Spring, the lush countryside and blue hills provide the background for young people intent on weaving flower garlands, while in Summer, the fields of golden wheat and the stream tell us how dry the hot season is.

On the wall facing it, Fall is represented by the beautiful peasant girl with red cheeks, busy pressing grapes, and giving an alluring look to the young man who watches her, ecstatic.

Winter, on the other hand, is set inside a loggia, with a view of the snowy hills in the distance. A family warms itself around the fire. The father seeks comfort in the cold, drinking a little wine. A child blows on the fire to revive the flame. Another warms his feet. The mother feeds her youngest child, while the grandmother is busy spinning wool.

The horizon line, the trees that close the scenes laterally, the clothing and colours, create a feeling of continuity between the four paintings: the cycle of the seasons is also the cycle of life, represented explicitly in the Winter scene with the representation of the various ages.