Description
Neapolitan school; c. 1700. "Still life." Oil on canvas glued to tablex. It presents faults and restorations on the pictorial surface. Measurements: 98 x 156 cm; 106 x 166 cm (frame). The painter has arranged on an elongated surface that opens to the exterior a sumptuous still life. The multitude of fruits of this still life are painted with meticulousness and realism, with warm reddish and orange tones, besides some violet tones, they are softly illuminated by a frontal spotlight external to the composition. This lighting, somewhat theatrical, makes them stand out against a practically monochrome, earthy-toned background, except for the upper left zone dominated by the landscape. Aesthetically the work is close to the painting of Giovanni Battista Ruoppolo (Naples 1629-1692). This painter, a disciple of Paolo Porpora (1617-1673) devoted much of his career to the painting of still lifes, a genre that was born in Baroque times, reaching great popularity. Although it was not the pictorial genre most appreciated by scholars and academics, always interested in painting history, mythology or religious themes, bourgeois and aristocrats throughout Europe, but especially in Flanders, the Netherlands, Spain and southern Italy, were extraordinarily attracted by the painting of objects of everyday reality, which they commissioned to decorate their rooms. Fruits and flowers, sometimes accompanied by game, ornamental objects (ceramic, glass or metal pieces, watches, jewelry) and books became the protagonists of splendid compositions that sometimes reach a high degree of verism and sometimes conceal a symbolic meaning, reflections on the passage of time, life and death or even religious questions. Still life presents, in the different territories in which it is cultivated, particular characteristics. In the case of Naples, it is a genre linked to painting derived from Caravaggio and also, to a large extent, to the school of the Spanish Golden Age. It is thus characterized by its formal restraint compared to the Flemish still life, with dark backgrounds, which give a certain aura of mystery to the composition, and a violent, theatrical lighting. Giovanni Battista Ruoppolo presents, in his youth, to which the work we present here could belong, a marked inclination towards the "tenebrist", "caravaggist" treatment of light, although he would later evolve towards more decorative compositions. It presents faults and restorations on the pictorial surface.
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Neapolitan school; c. 1700. "Still life." Oil on canvas glued to tablex. It presents faults and restorations on the pictorial surface. Measurements: 98 x 156 cm; 106 x 166 cm (frame). The painter has arranged on an elongated surface that opens to the exterior a sumptuous still life. The multitude of fruits of this still life are painted with meticulousness and realism, with warm reddish and orange tones, besides some violet tones, they are softly illuminated by a frontal spotlight external to the composition. This lighting, somewhat theatrical, makes them stand out against a practically monochrome, earthy-toned background, except for the upper left zone dominated by the landscape. Aesthetically the work is close to the painting of Giovanni Battista Ruoppolo (Naples 1629-1692). This painter, a disciple of Paolo Porpora (1617-1673) devoted much of his career to the painting of still lifes, a genre that was born in Baroque times, reaching great popularity. Although it was not the pictorial genre most appreciated by scholars and academics, always interested in painting history, mythology or religious themes, bourgeois and aristocrats throughout Europe, but especially in Flanders, the Netherlands, Spain and southern Italy, were extraordinarily attracted by the painting of objects of everyday reality, which they commissioned to decorate their rooms. Fruits and flowers, sometimes accompanied by game, ornamental objects (ceramic, glass or metal pieces, watches, jewelry) and books became the protagonists of splendid compositions that sometimes reach a high degree of verism and sometimes conceal a symbolic meaning, reflections on the passage of time, life and death or even religious questions. Still life presents, in the different territories in which it is cultivated, particular characteristics. In the case of Naples, it is a genre linked to painting derived from Caravaggio and also, to a large extent, to the school of the Spanish Golden Age. It is thus characterized by its formal restraint compared to the Flemish still life, with dark backgrounds, which give a certain aura of mystery to the composition, and a violent, theatrical lighting. Giovanni Battista Ruoppolo presents, in his youth, to which the work we present here could belong, a marked inclination towards the "tenebrist", "caravaggist" treatment of light, although he would later evolve towards more decorative compositions. It presents faults and restorations on the pictorial surface.
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