Magnasco, Alessandro (1681–1747)

Italian painter. He was greatly admired in his own time for his melodramatic scenes of gloomy, ruinous buildings in storm-tossed landscapes, peopled with mysterious, often sinister figures. He used violent brushstrokes on a dark canvas, and influenced Sebastiano Ricci and Francesco Guardi with his technique.

He was born in Genoa, the son of the painter Stefano Magnasco. Having studied in Milan, he worked there and also in Florence and Genoa. In his tempestuous, Romantic style he carried on the tradition of Salvator Rosa, his subjects including market scenes, Romany encampments, synagogues, and monks at prayer in wild landscape settings. His works also include pictures of social life in which there is a fantastic and perhaps satiric element.