An Italian Comedy in Verona

Marco Marcola · 1772

Medium

Oil on canvas

Original size

115.3 × 84.2 cm (45 3/8 × 32 5/8 in.); Framed: 122 × 92.3 × 7.7 cm (48 × 36 3/8 × 3 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Rococo

"An Italian Comedy in Verona" captures the irreverent energy of commedia dell'arte at its height — masked performers, jostling crowds, and the open-air theatricality that defined public life in eighteenth-century northern Italy. Marco Marcola was a Veronese painter who spent most of his career documenting the city's social fabric, from aristocratic interiors to bustling piazzas. In this 1772 canvas, he brings the same observational precision he applied to portraiture and genre scenes: figures are individuated, expressions are caught mid-moment, and the architecture of Verona anchors the scene with genuine local character. His handling of light across layered groups of people shows the influence of Venetian painting while remaining firmly rooted in the Veronese tradition. The work is now held in the Art Institute of Chicago, making it one of the more significant examples of Italian genre painting from this period in an American public collection. A hand-painted oil reproduction on canvas faithfully recreates Marcola's warm palette and the textured depth that gives the original its sense of movement — the kind of qualities that simply cannot be transferred through a print. Each reproduction is painted by hand, making it a genuine artwork in its own right rather than a mechanical copy.