Picaresque Group with a Monkey and a Magpie 1720 - 1725

Alessandro Magnasco created "Picaresque Group with a Monkey and a Magpie" with pen and brown ink, and brown wash over black chalk in the 17th-18th century. Magnasco was an Italian painter who worked in Genoa and Florence, two cities experiencing distinct social and political tensions. His focus on the lives of marginalized people, from beggars to wandering performers, reveals a society grappling with issues of poverty, class disparity, and social exclusion. In this tumultuous environment, the figures in his drawing gather, animated by an atmosphere that is both comic and unsettling. The monkey and magpie, animals often associated with mimicry and trickery, add to the sense of a world turned upside down, or inside out. Are we looking at a candid snapshot of society’s fringes, or a staged commentary on its values? Magnasco’s work invites us to consider the stories of those living on the edges, prompting a reflection on who is included and who is excluded from the narratives of power and privilege.