# Praying Monks [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [MAGNASCO, Alessandro]() - Date: 1701-1750 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 53,6 x 43,9 cm ## Commentary Praying Monks by Alessandro Magnasco is a good example of the brilliant sketching technique of this Italian artist, who was a transitional figure between the Baroque and Rococo. The impassioned figures are rendered against a dark and threatening background with rapid, irregular brushstrokes. Isolated and ecstatic monks and hermits often feature in the macabre scenes through which Magnasco conveyed his fantastic and critical vision of humanity. The emotional turbulence of his work was not unique in the Italian Baroque and Rococo, but it was certainly something of an extreme example. ## Related artworks - [A Hermit in a Grotto]() - [Bacchanalian Scene]() - [Banditti at Rest]() - [Christ Adored by Two Nuns]() - [Christ Served by the Angels]() - [Entombment of a Soldier]() - [Gypsy Wedding Banquet]() - [Halt of the Brigands]() - [Interrogations in Jail]() - [Joseph Interprets the Dreams of the Pharaoh's Servants Whilst in Jail]() - [Market]() - [Mountainous Landscape]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()