.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The Lombard tradition of naturalism that earlier inspired Caravaggio reached its culmination in the eighteenth century with Giacomo Ceruti. Born in Milan in 1698, Ceruti entered an artistic climate divided between a waning appreciation of serious historical pictures and a renewed delight in humanity. It was the genius of the eighteenth century to immortalize the fugitive moments of everyday life in its memoirs, diaries, theatre and art. 'Paintings were judged good,' Sir Michael Levey notes, 'in so far as they were truthful'. The still life masters who placed their trust in Nature - Chardin, Meléndez and Ceruti among them -- were formed in the first half of the eighteenth century before the triumph of neoclassicism.
Ceruti passed a restless life, moving between the cities of Lombardy and the Veneto. In Brescia, Gandino, Venice, Padua, Piacenza and Milan, he painted portraits of remarkable intensity. At the same time he began to render the daily life of the poor in paintings that are objective and yet touching in a way that anticipates Goya later in the century. 'These are works of genuine realism, observed neither with sympathy nor disgust,' was the comment of Ellis Waterhouse in 1962. Ceruti was given a nickname, 'Il Pitocchetto', on account of these remarkable portrayals of beggars and vagabonds (pitocchi). Ceruti's interest in such subjects, and in still lifes, was encouraged by a great collector, Field Marshal Count Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg. Between 1735 and 1736, Ceruti painted at least eleven paintings for Schulenberg, including four of mendicants, three landscapes with animals, and four still lifes described in an inventory as 'small pictures representing chickens, doves, ducks, fish, and fruits'.
A jug of wine, a loaf of bread and an enticing melon are the essential subjects of these beautiful still lifes, which are here proposed as examples of Ceruti's pastoral style of the 1750s. The paintings of this late phase, which are relatively few in number, are characterized by an idyllic calm, as if after years of restless wanderings the artist finally found peace. The warm tonalities of green, tan and yellowish orange belong to the Lombard palette he always used, even when competing with the Venetians in the service of Marshal Schulenberg. The perspective is tilted in order to project the subjects forward from the picture, bringing them, as baroque artists had done, close enough to touch. Ceruti's brushwork is decisively more delicate than in any previous time in his career, yet his signature touches of short, hooked strokes, like sinuous commas, are visible throughout. The same style and technique are found in the comparable pair of still lifes in the Brera, Milan, probably painted a few years later.
Like the pastoral poetry of the eighteenth century, these paintings may be read as either simple pleasures or as invitations to contemplation. One of the still lifes is displayed on top of a table, while the other is set upon a rock ledge that signifies the out-of-doors. The same motif recurs in the Brera pendants, in which an elegant meal, with glass cruets standing by, is paired with a gathering of autumn fruits and nuts. In the present pictures, the melons are identical, although at home, a knife is used to slice it neatly. The gentleman serves wine in a fine glass, while the farmer keeps his bottle cool in a copper bucket. They each eat the same loaf of bread. Ceruti quietly contrasts city living and country life, and finds them not so very different, for Nature is all-encompassing.
We are grateful to Dr John Spike for the above catalogue entry.
Ceruti passed a restless life, moving between the cities of Lombardy and the Veneto. In Brescia, Gandino, Venice, Padua, Piacenza and Milan, he painted portraits of remarkable intensity. At the same time he began to render the daily life of the poor in paintings that are objective and yet touching in a way that anticipates Goya later in the century. 'These are works of genuine realism, observed neither with sympathy nor disgust,' was the comment of Ellis Waterhouse in 1962. Ceruti was given a nickname, 'Il Pitocchetto', on account of these remarkable portrayals of beggars and vagabonds (pitocchi). Ceruti's interest in such subjects, and in still lifes, was encouraged by a great collector, Field Marshal Count Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg. Between 1735 and 1736, Ceruti painted at least eleven paintings for Schulenberg, including four of mendicants, three landscapes with animals, and four still lifes described in an inventory as 'small pictures representing chickens, doves, ducks, fish, and fruits'.
A jug of wine, a loaf of bread and an enticing melon are the essential subjects of these beautiful still lifes, which are here proposed as examples of Ceruti's pastoral style of the 1750s. The paintings of this late phase, which are relatively few in number, are characterized by an idyllic calm, as if after years of restless wanderings the artist finally found peace. The warm tonalities of green, tan and yellowish orange belong to the Lombard palette he always used, even when competing with the Venetians in the service of Marshal Schulenberg. The perspective is tilted in order to project the subjects forward from the picture, bringing them, as baroque artists had done, close enough to touch. Ceruti's brushwork is decisively more delicate than in any previous time in his career, yet his signature touches of short, hooked strokes, like sinuous commas, are visible throughout. The same style and technique are found in the comparable pair of still lifes in the Brera, Milan, probably painted a few years later.
Like the pastoral poetry of the eighteenth century, these paintings may be read as either simple pleasures or as invitations to contemplation. One of the still lifes is displayed on top of a table, while the other is set upon a rock ledge that signifies the out-of-doors. The same motif recurs in the Brera pendants, in which an elegant meal, with glass cruets standing by, is paired with a gathering of autumn fruits and nuts. In the present pictures, the melons are identical, although at home, a knife is used to slice it neatly. The gentleman serves wine in a fine glass, while the farmer keeps his bottle cool in a copper bucket. They each eat the same loaf of bread. Ceruti quietly contrasts city living and country life, and finds them not so very different, for Nature is all-encompassing.
We are grateful to Dr John Spike for the above catalogue entry.