Andrea Locatelli - Magic Scene

Andrea Locatelli was an Italian painter of landscapes. Born in Rome, he was the son and pupil of the painter Piero Locatelli, who had studied with the Florentine Ciro Ferri.

The painting affords a view into the ruins of a sacred-looking building whose vault is borne by ruinous columns. The tooth of time has gnawed at these structures with their antique spoils, and the force of nature has likewise left its mark: Stony remains such as the stump of a column on an elevated base are overgrown with mossy vegetation.

These details unite to present us with the creepy, rotting locus of an evil spirit, where reason sleeps. The witch-like figure of Ananke, the messenger of death, evokes associations of Cronos-Saturn’s dark realm of the dead.

The spectator inadvertently becomes a witness to occult acts, a magical ritual, a necromantic operation. The painting is evidently a very personal statement by the painter who, in 1741, at the end of his life, has come into circumstances of dire privation. At the same time, with its fantastical theme – occurring only this once throughout the artist’s oeuvre – the work also describes the mood of an ambivalent epoch in which, alongside enlightened ideas such as those of Voltaire, occult traditions, for example the dark arts of Cagliostro, have managed to survive.