Paintings Drawings Sculptures 2016 - Jean Luc Baroni

figures of people and horses are depicted with an
extraordinary accuracy, highly impressive in a selftaught
artist.
Bossoli here depicts a party of Cossacks travelling
on the road alongside the River Terek, a section of
the torturous route between Tbilisi and Vladikavkas
known as the Georgian Military Highway. It was an
ancient track which was first properly engineered
by the Russians in the early 19 th century during the
Caucasian Wars and the purpose of this grand tempera
painting was perhaps to celebrate the achievement
this route symbolised. The winding progress of silvery
water through the river plain, the hillocks and rocky
outcrops and the huge screen of mountains in the
background are all features of the Terek’s topography.
From their costumes, the figures may be identified as
Cossacks of the Black Sea, a community which settled
in this specific area around the end of the eighteenth
century and came to play a key role in the Russian
conquest of the Caucasus. Their manner of dressing
was influenced by the local tribes, particularly the
Circassians from whom they borrowed the long, wide
sleeved coat, held in place by a belt, and the huge
sheepskin hat.
The present work comes from the collections of the
Besnati family in Milan. Luigi Besnati, who lived at the
end of the 19 th century, owned a number of paintings
by Bossoli. These were inherited by his two children,
who continued to add to the collection: Angelo
Besnati was a silversmith and advisor to Buccellati and
in 1936 Carla Volpato Besnati donated a painting by
Bossoli to the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Milan.