Two paintings of saints in landscapes by Alessandro Magnasco

Two dramatic Baroque landscapes hang either side of the principle niche of the Entrance Hall. On the left, "St. Anthony of Padua Preaching to the Fishes" and on the right "St. Augustine and the Christ Child". These dark and stormy scenes with their white-crested waves and twisted boughs feature strange architectural elements, with scenes of saints in the foreground.

Alessandro Magnasco (February 4, 1667 – March 12, 1749), also known as il Lissandrino, was an Italian late-Baroque painter active mostly in Milan and Genoa. He is best known for stylized, fantastic, often phantasmagoric genre or landscape scenes. Magnasco's distinctive style is characterized by fragmented forms rendered with swift brushstrokes and darting flashes of light.[1]