1612 -1666 · Coldrerio, Rome and Northern Italy

Landscape poetry, meditative figures and warm chiaroscuro give Pier Francesco Mola a unique place in Roman Baroque.

Pier Francesco Mola was born in 1612 in Coldrerio, near Lugano, and died in Rome in 1666. His father, an architect in the service of the Pontifical Treasury, took the family to Rome early. The painter received training there marked by classicism, but two long stays in Northern Italy, from 1633 to 1640 then from 1641 to 1647, profoundly broadened his language. Venice brought him color and atmosphere, Bologna the construction, while his time in Pietro da's workshop Cortona opens it to baroque dynamism. Mola often prefers scenes to large decorative machines where the figure seems absorbed by the landscape and thought. Rest during the flight into Egypt envelops the Holy Family in a stop shadowy, attentive to human fatigue as much as to the sacred. Tancrede cared for by Herminie and Vafrin transposes Le Tasse into a dramatic nature where care and heroism respond to each other. Oriental warrior, also known as Barbary Pirate, concentrates the artist's taste for turbans, powerful profiles and imaginary characters. In Herminie engraves the name of Tancred on a tree, the tiny action becomes a confession of love within a silent landscape. Prolific designer and a spiritual caricaturist, Mola knows how to move from rapid study to a supple, dark and luminous painting, which unites Rome, Venice and the poetic imagination. The "Pier Francesco Mola" selection notably compares Le Repos during the flight to Egypt and Tancred treated by Herminie and Vafrin. His reading favors composition.

Mola lets the story breathe in nature: a shadow, a turban, a hand placed on the bark are enough to make the landscape a state of the soul.