The wide horizon shows a distant cloud dumping a downpour of rain without touching the luminous calm of the countryside in the foreground, as though sending a reassuring message about the positive benevolence of nature even in its most violent manifestations.

Gianneschi returns to the theme of a steep path in the midst of uninhabited nature to reach a clearing with trees still leafless in a winter atmosphere, an explicit metaphor for the difficulties of human life longing for the serenity of a desired sense of wellbeing.

The use of ancient painting techniques based on the teachings of Cennino Cennini enables the artist to obtain luminous colour and surfaces as smooth and glossy as precious enamels. The white rocks of the Albegna River are transformed into anthropomorphic giants, ready to engage in conversation like elderly sages, experts

In this painting the artist seems to return to surreal themes in showing the contrast between the modest building in the shadows, revealed only by the electric light of a streetlamp, and the luminous grandeur of the Amiata woods inhabited by a protective stone giant.

The descriptive accuracy of the leaves and rocks in the foreground competes with the analogical precision of Dürer and Mantegna. The artist’s interest in masters of the past includes also the spiritual inspiration of the Romantics, from whom he seems to have borrowed the theme of a steep path that,