Enrico Albrici
An assembly of dwarves, in an interior
Enrico Albrici (1714–1775) was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque. His surname is alternatively spelled or Alberici or Albrizzi or Albricci.
He was born at Vilminore di Scalve in province of Bergamo, and was a pupil of Ferdinando del Cairo of Brescia, under whom he studied three years. He painted for the churches and buildings of Brescia, Bergamo, and the villages in the Valle di Scalve. He painted a Woman of Samaria, a Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, a Raising of Lazarus, a Prodigal Son and a Good Shepherd for the church Santa Maria dei Miracoli at Brescia. He also painted monochrome paintings for the facade of Charity and Virtue
Charity, facade fresco, at S. Maria dei Miracoli, Brescia (At lower right corner, bird cuts itself, in order to feed blood to offspring)
The fresco paintings above were traditional for a serious late Baroque artist; on the other hand, in private commissions, Enrico was a follower of an idiosyncratically jocose and Bamboccianti style fostered by Faustino Bocchi. Both Bocchi and Albrici are now best known for his peculiar paintings of hordes of dwarfs engrossed in daily activities or in farcical epic gestures. The critic Scotti describes him as one that "lowers art to a new grade and wield the brush to draw monstrous dwarfs, gnomes and grotesque animals, witches with Lilliputian bodies, but hands and heads of giants. With (Albrici), genre painting descends into childish caricature, which though it sometimes has certain salacious spiciness and rusticity (montanita), it never gains the vigor of true and satisfying satire".
References
Bryan, Michael (1886). Robert Edmund Graves, ed. Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical (Volume I.: A-K). York St. #4, Covent Garden, London; Original from Fogg Library, Digitized May 18, 2007: George Bell and Sons. p. 12.
Scotti, Giulio (1897). Bergamo nel Seiciento, Saggi Illustrativi. Bergamo: Stab. Tipo-Litografico Frat. Bolis.
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