Lot Essay
In 1950, Roberto Longhi traced the development of the Italian conception of the still life from the art of Caravaggio, using two still lifes which he then attributed to an unknown Caravaggesque of around 1625 (R. Longhi, Un momento importante nella storia della natura morta, Paragone, 1950, I, pp. 34-9). The same two pictures (now with Wildenstein, New York) reappeared on the market in New York in 1984, attributed to Simone del Tintore. It has subsequently been possible to assemble a group of related still life paintings by the same hand, including an amplified version of one of the Wildenstein pictures (private collection), which was itself part of a series including two others now in the Museo del Castello Sforzesco, Milan. One of these is in turn monogrammed 'ST', which was also variously interpreted as Tommaso Salini or Simone del Tintore.
Luigi Salerno, in 1984, was the first to suggest that this group should actually be identified with the hand of Bernardo Strozzi through comparison with still lifes in his figure compositions (L. Salerno, Still Life Painting in Italy 1560-1805, Rome, 1984, pp. 139-45). Although this view is not universally accepted, it has been further confirmed by authorities such as Bettina Suida Manning, Federico Zeri, Andreina Griseri, Alberto Cottino, Luisa Mortari and the organizers of the 1995 Strozzi exhibition in Genoa (B. Suida Manning, Bernardo Strozzi as Painter of Still Life, Apollo, CXXI, April 1985, pp. 248-52; A. Griseri and A. Cottino, La natura morta in Italia, ed. F. Zeri, Milan, 1989, I, pp. 113-4 and 119-21; and L. Mortari, op. cit., pp. 174-7, nos. 424-34).
The stylistic similarity of the present pair of still lifes to the above group was first acknowledged as early as 1962, when Maggi proposed an attribution to Salini, loc. cit.. However, Moro was the first to propose an attribution to Strozzi in the catalogue of the 1989 Paris exhibition, loc. cit.. This was confirmed in the same
year by Luigi Salerno, who published a photograph of the second work as by Bernardo Strozzi, loc. cit., a view which was again upheld in the new monograph on the artist by Mortari (op. cit., pp. 175-6, no. 427).
The relationship of the present pair of pictures to this growing group of 'pure' still lifes attributed to Strozzi is further strengthened by a comparison with two smaller works first exhibited and published in the exhibition, Italian Still Life Painting from Three Centuries: The Silvano Lodi Collection, Bayrische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek, Munich, 27 Sept. 1984 - 22 Feb. 1985, nos. 31 and 32, illustrated. These pictures repeat, with minor variations, the motif of the bowl of flowers from the first picture and the decorated ceramic vase from the second. The practice of reusing and elaborating a composition around the same still life motifs is echoed in the other works belonging to the same group. Indeed, Salerno notes that 'the existence of different versions of the same composition can be explained by Strozzi's very creativity and his need to replicate pictures that owed their success precisely to their novelty, a novelty that struck his contemporaries and that enables us today to recognize in him the originator of a pictorial genre destined for important developments' (L. Salerno, 1989, op. cit., p. 55).
Luigi Salerno, in 1984, was the first to suggest that this group should actually be identified with the hand of Bernardo Strozzi through comparison with still lifes in his figure compositions (L. Salerno, Still Life Painting in Italy 1560-1805, Rome, 1984, pp. 139-45). Although this view is not universally accepted, it has been further confirmed by authorities such as Bettina Suida Manning, Federico Zeri, Andreina Griseri, Alberto Cottino, Luisa Mortari and the organizers of the 1995 Strozzi exhibition in Genoa (B. Suida Manning, Bernardo Strozzi as Painter of Still Life, Apollo, CXXI, April 1985, pp. 248-52; A. Griseri and A. Cottino, La natura morta in Italia, ed. F. Zeri, Milan, 1989, I, pp. 113-4 and 119-21; and L. Mortari, op. cit., pp. 174-7, nos. 424-34).
The stylistic similarity of the present pair of still lifes to the above group was first acknowledged as early as 1962, when Maggi proposed an attribution to Salini, loc. cit.. However, Moro was the first to propose an attribution to Strozzi in the catalogue of the 1989 Paris exhibition, loc. cit.. This was confirmed in the same
year by Luigi Salerno, who published a photograph of the second work as by Bernardo Strozzi, loc. cit., a view which was again upheld in the new monograph on the artist by Mortari (op. cit., pp. 175-6, no. 427).
The relationship of the present pair of pictures to this growing group of 'pure' still lifes attributed to Strozzi is further strengthened by a comparison with two smaller works first exhibited and published in the exhibition, Italian Still Life Painting from Three Centuries: The Silvano Lodi Collection, Bayrische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek, Munich, 27 Sept. 1984 - 22 Feb. 1985, nos. 31 and 32, illustrated. These pictures repeat, with minor variations, the motif of the bowl of flowers from the first picture and the decorated ceramic vase from the second. The practice of reusing and elaborating a composition around the same still life motifs is echoed in the other works belonging to the same group. Indeed, Salerno notes that 'the existence of different versions of the same composition can be explained by Strozzi's very creativity and his need to replicate pictures that owed their success precisely to their novelty, a novelty that struck his contemporaries and that enables us today to recognize in him the originator of a pictorial genre destined for important developments' (L. Salerno, 1989, op. cit., p. 55).