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Lot Essay
Luca Forte was one of the leading still-life painters in Naples at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and is particularly significant for having brought the naturalism of Caravaggio to the genre. Unlike Caravaggio, Forte introduced landscape backgrounds to his still lifes, as seen in the present painting. This intimately-scaled copper panel displays refined brushwork typical of Forte's technique. Giuseppe de Vito proposed that this picture, together with a closely comparable copper depicting red grapes, now in The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (fig. 1, inv. no. 86.PC.51), were conceived as a pendant pair (loc. cit.). This suggestion was later endorsed by Nicola Spinosa, who dated the works to the 1640s (loc. cit.). Giuseppe Porzio, to whom we are grateful for endorsing the attribution, notes that there is no doubt the two coppers were conceived of in parallel, but may not have been pendants considering the differences in signature (Private communication, October 2025).
Little is known of Forte’s life and artistic training, save scant details preserved in a handful of historical documents. In 1639, he served as a witness by signing the marriage license of fellow artist Aniello Falcone. Forte must have belonged to the circle of painters around Falcone, whose studio served as an informal academy of still-life painting between 1630 and 1640. This association is further supported by the 1692 inventory of paintings in the Palazzo Tarsia Spinelli, which records a collaboration between the two artists, as well as an additional twenty paintings by Forte, attesting to his considerable success as a still-life painter. In a letter, dated 25 September 1640, to the collector Don Antonio Ruffo, Forte described his own artistic prowess:
‘The painting in question depicts various kinds of fruit, painted from large to small, a work no less curious than delightful, and indeed one that has been executed with the smallest of brushes. In it are found details resembling miniature painting, since it is impossible to convey their effect on paper’ (for original text see P.A. Davia, ‘Galleria Ruffo nel Secolo XVII in Messina (con lettere di pittore ed altri documenti inedita)', Bolletino D’Arte, 1916, p. 61).
The remaining letters, penned between 1640 and 1650, describe the incredible sums Forte’s works demanded--sometimes as much as 200 ducati.
Little is known of Forte’s life and artistic training, save scant details preserved in a handful of historical documents. In 1639, he served as a witness by signing the marriage license of fellow artist Aniello Falcone. Forte must have belonged to the circle of painters around Falcone, whose studio served as an informal academy of still-life painting between 1630 and 1640. This association is further supported by the 1692 inventory of paintings in the Palazzo Tarsia Spinelli, which records a collaboration between the two artists, as well as an additional twenty paintings by Forte, attesting to his considerable success as a still-life painter. In a letter, dated 25 September 1640, to the collector Don Antonio Ruffo, Forte described his own artistic prowess:
‘The painting in question depicts various kinds of fruit, painted from large to small, a work no less curious than delightful, and indeed one that has been executed with the smallest of brushes. In it are found details resembling miniature painting, since it is impossible to convey their effect on paper’ (for original text see P.A. Davia, ‘Galleria Ruffo nel Secolo XVII in Messina (con lettere di pittore ed altri documenti inedita)', Bolletino D’Arte, 1916, p. 61).
The remaining letters, penned between 1640 and 1650, describe the incredible sums Forte’s works demanded--sometimes as much as 200 ducati.