Soldiers Gambling
Salvator RosaProbably 1656-8
Dulwich Picture Gallery
London, United Kingdom
"Salvator Rosa (1615-1673) worked in Rome at the same time as Poussin and Claude but rejected the ideal beauty which they, in their different ways, both pursued. Nature, in Rosa's landscapes, is barren and hostile, peopled not with gods or Arcadian shepherds, but witches, soldiers and brigands. This outdoor scene is typical: set at night, the sky threatens and one senses that the stakes may be high. The aloof figure of the standing soldier, strongly lit in contrast to the general gloom of the scene, adds to the mood of unease.
""Savage Rosa"" was immensely popular in eighteenth century England; he became something of a hero to the Romantics because of his wild imagery and his rebellious character. Ruskin, in the nineteenth century, said that Rosa's art was infected by the ""dragon breath"" of evil."
- Title: Soldiers Gambling
- Creator Lifespan: 1615 - 1673
- Date: Probably 1656-8
- Physical Dimensions: w616 x h771 cm
- Type: Painting
- Medium: Oil
- Work Nationality: Italian
- Support: Canvas
- Provenance: London, Noel Desenfans, 1802-1807: London, Skinner and Dyke, Desenfans sale, 16 Mar. 1802, lot 62 ('Salvator Rosa-A Landscape with Dice Players'. Descriptive Catalogue, no. 12: ÔIn a retired spot, on the fore-ground, a stone covered with a piece of drapery, serves two men, seated opposite to each other, as a dice board. Between them, towards the right, a soldier in a helmet and armour, is stooping to observe the game, in which he appears to have some interest; an officer, likewise covered with a helmet and breast-plate, is another spectator of the play, but it is easily observable that he has no interest whatever in it ... One of the players, who has already thrown his dice, is leaning forward over the stone, on which he fixes an ardent impatient look, while his adversary, half seated and half risen, is on the point of making his throw, which he is restrained from doing, by successive hopes and fears that are visibly traced in his countenance'). Handwritten note in copy of catalogue at The Hague, RKD: '2 3/4 h. 2 1/4'. £210.0 (bt in); London, Sir Francis Bourgeois, 1807-1811; Bourgeois Bequest, 1811.
- Inscriptions: S Rosa [SR in monogram]
- Further Information: Salvator Rosa's intense ambition and violent temperament made him a prominent and controversial figure in Rome. In his early career Rosa painted mainly battle scenes and landscapes, the latter notable for their depiction of the rugged aspect of nature. From the 1650s he increasingly established his reputation as a history painter, frequently of complex and recondite subjects.
- Artist: Rosa, Salvator
- Acquisition Method: Bourgeois, Sir Peter Francis (Bequest, 1811)
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