Seven metres of painting unfold like a film sequence: in Ballo campestre, pairs of dancers immersed in a natural landscape follow one another in a visual rhythm that becomes almost audible. Created around the mid-sixteenth century by a follower of Giovanni Antonio de’ Sacchis, it is a tempera painting from a palace in the city centre, demolished in the mid-nineteenth century. To preserve it, the frieze was detached from the wall and placed in the council chamber of the Municipality of Pordenone, where it remained until it was moved to the museum in 1976.
The scene depicts an outdoor celebration in which clothing, hairstyles and musical instruments are rendered with precision, showing a close attention to everyday life and its simplest gestures: a distinctive feature of Il Pordenone’s visual language, here taken up by his circle, testifying to the success and wide diffusion of his style.
