Attributed to Angelo Inganni - The soup kitchen

The work is presented to us under the title "The Table of the Poor," in which the figures within the scene approach the priest who offers them a meal. Within the history of art, the depiction of humble figures in canvases became increasingly common in the 19th century. The study of the non-idealized and non-romanticized representation of the daily lives of people of low rank was a theme dear to Realism, an artistic movement born as a reaction to Romanticism, which focused on the ordinary aspects of reality. This new artistic vision would influence all art forms, from literature to theater. In France, artists such as Jean-François Millet and Gustave Courbet defined the genre. Soon in Italy, these truthful and stark themes of everyday reality would be taken up by the Macchiaioli painting group. Angelo Inganni seems to be close to these new artistic inclinations, enough to depict a scene of this magnitude. Stylistically, Angelo Inganni's painting employs a pictorial technique common in the Renaissance and Baroque periods: oil painting on copper plate. This technique creates a smooth, grain-free surface, allowing the painter to achieve a very high level of representation, especially in terms of the meticulous pictorial detail.  Precisely because of these priorities, which also and above all emphasize the brilliance of the colors, it was revived in the 19th century, although the technique was limited to specific works. Here the artist Angelo Inganni makes a particular use of it by bringing the copper surface to larger dimensions, so as to be able to give more importance to the scene. As highlighted by Prof. Emilio Tonin ^[1] , the one who attributed the painting to the work of Inganni, the painting of the artist from Brescia is recognizable by the balanced pictorial composition and by a meticulous search for light. "Each character leads one to believe that he is the portrait of himself; but, at the same time, they are all linked [...] together by the synthesis of the compositional movement responding to the common meaning"; the words of Emilio Tonin immerse themselves within the painting, giving us a concrete definition of Angelo Inganni's painting. Angelo Inganni, born in Brescia in 1807 and died in Milan in 1880, was an Italian painter. He began painting at a young age with his brother Francesco in their father's workshop. His first canvases were of religious subjects, commissioned from his father for churches in the surrounding area. In 1827, he was called up for military service, but thanks to Marshal Radetzky, who recognized his talent and even commissioned a portrait of him, he was exempted from military service. He began his career as a painter at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts under the guidance of masters such as Giovanni Migliara and Francesco Hayez. He exhibited his works in the Academy's annual exhibitions and then opened his own studio in Milan. The following years saw great success with his painting, becoming one of the most renowned vedutisti of the 19th century, winning over the nobility and the bourgeoisie. His paintings are a careful documentation of urban Milan, clearly opposed to the neoclassical trend that heralded Romanticism. He returned to Brescia several times and stayed in Gussago. In 1853, the artist exhibited in Paris, and several years later, in 1874, he exhibited in numerous Milanese shows, before passing away in 1880. ^[1] The quote refers to the letter written by Prof. Emilio Tonin, an artist from Belluno born in 1904, the work was part of his collection, in which the artist himself states the attribution to the master from Brescia.

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