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Lot Essay
The artistic personality of the Metropolitan Master was first described by Raffaello Causa in 1972 (R. Causa, 'La natura morta a Napoli nel Sei e nel Settecento,' in Storia di Napoli, II, t.I, pp. 1019 and 1047, no. 83, fig. 429). Causa named the anonymous master after a still life in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 71.118; formerly attributed to Giovanni Paolo Castelli, lo Spadino), and suggested that he worked in Naples under the influence of Roman artists such as Abraham Brueghel and Michele Pace, called Michelangelo del Campidoglio, the two greatest still-life painters in Rome at the time.
More recently scholars have noticed the similarity of the Metropolitan Master's dramatic treatment of shadows and colour with that of the early work of Michele Pace del Campidoglio, and some have gone as far as suggesting that the two artists are the same, with the Metropolitan Master's oeuvre equating to the youthful Michele Pace (cf. L. Salerno, La natura morta italiana 1560-1805, Rome, 1984, pp. 178-181, for Pace; L. Trezzani, in F. Zeri ed., La natura morta in Italia, Milan, 1989, vol. II, pp. 775-83 for Pace and pp. 784-7 for the Metropolitan Master). The present work bears comparison with both the Metropolitan Museum of Art picture cited above, and Pace's Still life in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg (no. 2486).
We are grateful to Professor Riccardo Lattuada who has attributed the present picture to the Metropolitan Master after inspection in the original, and for his help in cataloguing this lot.
More recently scholars have noticed the similarity of the Metropolitan Master's dramatic treatment of shadows and colour with that of the early work of Michele Pace del Campidoglio, and some have gone as far as suggesting that the two artists are the same, with the Metropolitan Master's oeuvre equating to the youthful Michele Pace (cf. L. Salerno, La natura morta italiana 1560-1805, Rome, 1984, pp. 178-181, for Pace; L. Trezzani, in F. Zeri ed., La natura morta in Italia, Milan, 1989, vol. II, pp. 775-83 for Pace and pp. 784-7 for the Metropolitan Master). The present work bears comparison with both the Metropolitan Museum of Art picture cited above, and Pace's Still life in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg (no. 2486).
We are grateful to Professor Riccardo Lattuada who has attributed the present picture to the Metropolitan Master after inspection in the original, and for his help in cataloguing this lot.