Giovanni Carnovali, also known as II Piccio, was a painter. He was born in 1804. Carnovali was from Montegrino Valtravaglia and he studied at the Carrara Academy in Bergamo from when he was 11 years old. He developed a unique style, blending 16th and 17th-century traditions. He was a painter of the Romanticism movement, an artistic movement that originated in late 18th-century Europe. The aim was to emphasise the importance of imagination and appreciation in society as a counter-response to the Industrial Revolution.
The painting that we are seeing was inspired by Torquato Tasso’s Aminta. The scene depicted is based on the myth of Pyramus and Thisbe, told in Ovid's Metamorphoses. A pastor, Aminta, falls in love with a nymph named Silvia. Aminta saves Sylvia from a satyr that was getting ready to rape her; instead of thanking Aminta, Sylvia flees away. As time goes by, Aminta finds a piece of cloth that belongs to Sylvia with blood stains on it. This eventually makes him believe that she was killed by the wolves. After learning that his lover has passed away, he decides to commit suicide by jumping off a cliff. Sylvia, who is actually not dead, learning the news of her lover's passing away, feels terribly sorry about how she couldn't say that she loves him. As she moves to the ‘dead’ body of Aminta, she realises that he is still alive. He regains his consciousness, and they live happily ever after.
The lighting is soft and ethereal, almost dreamlike. The way that the light reflects on the skin of the figures makes them pop against the dark and moody landscape. The figures are arranged in a pyramidal composition, a classic Renaissance technique that counterbalances the emotional intensity of the scene. Piccio’s brushwork is soft and "sfumato" (blurred), and this furthermore creates a sense of atmosphere and movement, making the scene feel like a tragic memory rather than a frozen moment.
The use of lighting and colour is very interesting, as it begins with golden hues and tones on the left side, where the men sit and speak, highlighting both Aminta and Sylvia and almost dragging them away from the darkness of the far right. This could be a depiction of hope after Aminta is revealed to have not died, or perhaps the artist's unconscious biases showing through, as the men are highlighted in gold and the women, are drawn towards it.
