  About the Artwork
  
  
  The satirical intent of Magnasco's painting of a nobleman is all too clear: while clutching his sword in one hand and a scroll bearing his family tree with the other, this gallant gentleman is seated in a room with cheap furniture and broken pottery. His meal, spread out on the bench in front of him, consists of only radishes and onions. A shadowy figure behind the man derisively holds his left hand up in an Italian folk gesture, underscoring the pitiable condition to which the nobleman has fallen. Like Don Quixote, the chivalrous character from the Spanish romance written by Cervantes early in the seventeenth century, this nobleman clings to the past for solace.
  
  
  Title
  Satire on a Nobleman in Misery
  
  
  Artwork Date
  between 1719 and 1725
  
  Artist
  Alessandro Magnasco
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1667-1749
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  Italian
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Oil on canvas
  
  
  Dimensions
  Framed: 34 7/8 × 29 3/16 × 2 1/4 inches (88.6 × 74.1 × 5.7 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  European Painting
  
  
  Credit
  Gift of Luigi Grassi
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  36.14
  
  
  Copyright
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