Gerolamo Induno

Born in Milan in 1827, Girolamo Induno followed the footsteps of his older brother, Domenico in becoming a painter.  A member of the Academy of Milan where Geralamo studied, he specialized in genre scenes and exhibited in Turin, Naples, Milan, Rome, Venice, and Vienna, where he received a medal of honor in 1873.

This painting, with its depiction of simple village life incorporating wine, woman, and song, draws on a long tradition of genre painting in Italy going back at least to the Bamboccianti artists of the mid seventeenth Century.  The inclusion of a dwarf in the proceedings also recalls an earlier era in Italian painting, for example, the dwarf that Veronese depicted in his frescos of the Gonzaga entourage.  The appearance of a dwarf in a rustic setting is particularly unusual.