Hand-painted in oil
About this Artwork
Harness work, performed as leisure
The title names a horse-drawn carriage and calls the outing a ride. Both halves are functional information. Harness work and riding work are separate jobs for the animal, requiring different equipment and different training, and a carriage picture is a picture of the first: the horse is ahead of a vehicle rather than under a person. Calling it a ride puts the vehicle to a private, unhurried use rather than a scheduled or commercial one — which distinguishes the subject from the coaching and delivery entries elsewhere in this register.
What the record holds
The date of creation is 1856 and the location is the Pinacoteca Malaspina in Pavia. The dimensions are 36.2 x 23.3 cm, one of the smaller formats in this batch. Romanticism is the style term and Italian the nationality attached to the painter. The categories on this line are landscape and rural only — there is no animal heading, despite the first word of the title. The measured colour family of the image is neutral.
Fourteen vehicles in the register
Fourteen titles here name a cart, a wagon, a coach, a carriage, an omnibus, a caravan or a diligence. Taken together they are the clearest evidence this catalogue holds that the horse's largest economic role was not to be ridden. It was to pull.
Sources
2 references- Federico Faruffini — Wikipedia
Federico Faruffini (12 August 1833 – 15 December 1869) was an Italian painter and engraver of historical subjects. He worked in a style that combines the styles and themes of Realism with the diffuse outlines and lively colors of Scapigliat
- Faruffini, Federico — Getty ULAN
Italian painter and etcher, 1833-1969
