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Attributed to GIOVANNI CARNOVALI called IL PICCIO (Montegrino Valtravaglia 1804 – Coltaro di Sissa Parmense 1873) A GROUP OF FIGURE (recto) A STANDING BOY WITH A GOAT-SKIN (verso)
Black chalk heightened with white, on blue paper; 181 x 122 mm. The drawing on the recto fits well Piccio's graphic style; not so much the drawing on the verso. Maybe the drawing on the verso is by a different hand or, perhaps, both the drawings are by an artist very near to Piccio (the name of Giacomo Trécourt has been suggested), but not by him. My warmest thanks to Gioachino Santagiuliana for his suggestions about this drawing.

A student of Giuseppe Diotti, a rigorous neoclassicist, at the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, il Piccio was also influenced by Andrea Appiani. An artist of restless temperament, il Piccio preferred portraiture and landscape painting to historical or sacred subjects, thus breaking away from the academic tradition. He developed a personal style with impressionistic qualities that anticipated the Scapigliatura painters. Trécourt was another student under Diotti at the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, where he met Il Piccio, with whom he remained friend all his life. creating a romantic current within the significant school of Bergamo, which included other followers of Diotti, like Francesco Coghetti and Enrico Scuri.