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Lot Essay
Arranged on two levels, on two slabs of stone, fruits of the sea are presented to the viewer. A lobster, already cooked, lies in a blue and white ceramic bowl, whose chipped edges suggest that these offerings are from a modest kitchen. On the layer above the lobster, razor shells and oysters are heaped in a rough tray of wooden slats. This beautifully observed and atmospheric still life exemplifies the contribution made by Neapolitan painters, Giovanni Battista Recco above all, to the genre of the marine still life.
After Paris, Naples was the most populous city in seventeenth-century Europe and in the middle of the century food riots had been aggressively put down. While the state was forced to sell grain at below market prices, the growth of interest in marine still lifes may have been connected to a desire to emphasize the natural riches of the sea to which Neapolitans of all classes had access (see Schneider, op. cit., p. 194).
Recco's identity as a painter only emerged in 1961 when di Carpegna published a number of works by him, which on the basis of a full signature could be ascribed to him with certainty (N. di Carpegna, Bollettino d'Arte, 1961, 46, pp. 123-32). Works by him had been given to Giovanni Battista Ruoppolo on the basis of their identical initials (both artists sign with a monogram) as well as to Giuseppe Recco, Giovanni Battista's nephew, also an important painter of marine still lifes. Although the early biographers make no mention of Giovanni Battista, works by him are recorded in the inventories of Prince Ruffo (1656) and the Vandemeynden Collection (1688). His dated works place his activity in the 1650s. Recco paints with an earthy realism, visible here in details such as the treatment of the chipped rough ceramic bowl, that recalls a Spanish rather than a purely Caravaggesque sensibility. Similarly, the device of placing the still life elements on obviously differentiated levels finds a parallel in the still lifes of Spanish painters such as Juan van der Hamen y León. Salerno (op. cit., 1984, p. 114) even suggests the possibility that Recco may have met Velasquez during his visit to Italy in 1631.
This beautifully preserved example may be compared to two signed works by Giovanni Battista, a Still life with fish in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm and Fish and oysters in the Museum of Besançon.
After Paris, Naples was the most populous city in seventeenth-century Europe and in the middle of the century food riots had been aggressively put down. While the state was forced to sell grain at below market prices, the growth of interest in marine still lifes may have been connected to a desire to emphasize the natural riches of the sea to which Neapolitans of all classes had access (see Schneider, op. cit., p. 194).
Recco's identity as a painter only emerged in 1961 when di Carpegna published a number of works by him, which on the basis of a full signature could be ascribed to him with certainty (N. di Carpegna, Bollettino d'Arte, 1961, 46, pp. 123-32). Works by him had been given to Giovanni Battista Ruoppolo on the basis of their identical initials (both artists sign with a monogram) as well as to Giuseppe Recco, Giovanni Battista's nephew, also an important painter of marine still lifes. Although the early biographers make no mention of Giovanni Battista, works by him are recorded in the inventories of Prince Ruffo (1656) and the Vandemeynden Collection (1688). His dated works place his activity in the 1650s. Recco paints with an earthy realism, visible here in details such as the treatment of the chipped rough ceramic bowl, that recalls a Spanish rather than a purely Caravaggesque sensibility. Similarly, the device of placing the still life elements on obviously differentiated levels finds a parallel in the still lifes of Spanish painters such as Juan van der Hamen y León. Salerno (op. cit., 1984, p. 114) even suggests the possibility that Recco may have met Velasquez during his visit to Italy in 1631.
This beautifully preserved example may be compared to two signed works by Giovanni Battista, a Still life with fish in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm and Fish and oysters in the Museum of Besançon.