1039 - Fede Galizia

Fede Galizia Peaches and jasmine in a wicker basket Oil on canvas (relined). 32 x 40.5 cm. Certificate Pof. Dr. Flavio Caroli, s.d. - Prof. Dr. Flavio Caroli, Milan, 25.2.2025. Provenance Private collection, Italy. Literature F. Caroli: Peschi di Galizia, in: Quadri e Sculture Rivista d'Arte, June/July 1998, n.p. This small still life was discovered and first published by Flavio Caroli, who regards it as an outstanding variant of the composition formerly in the Sperling Collection, New York. Following an initial expert opinion, Caroli published the painting in 1998 and reaffirmed his attribution in 2025. Presented in close-up, the composition is distinguished by its simplicity and elegance. With great skill, the artist allows the objects to emerge from the darkness of the background and become enveloped in light, while maintaining a precise and faithful rendering of each individual object. Galizia’s still lifes are characterised by a clear compositional structure, the absence of a perspectivally defined background, and the frontal arrangement of the objects. In her works, Fede Galizia combines the sixteenth-century Lombard tradition and its predilection for the meticulous depiction of inanimate objects with influences from Northern European painting. Particularly significant in this respect was Jan Brueghel the Elder, who was active in the Milanese circle of Cardinal Federico Borromeo in 1595/96. The most important precedent for the present composition, however, is to be found in Caravaggio and his direct observation of nature. With reference to the above-mentioned version in New York, Harris and Nochlin (1964) argued that Fede Galizia must have known Caravaggio’s 'Canestra di frutta', painted around 1599, before developing her own composition, which displays striking similarities in several details. The authors also suggested that the New York painting may have been cut: the space allotted to the foreground is unusually restricted, giving the composition a more crowded appearance. The discovery of the present, broader version appears to support this hypothesis, first advanced in 1964. The repetitions and variants found throughout Galizia’s œuvre testify to the success of her compositions and to the considerable interest in her art among Lombard collectors, who held small-format easel paintings in particularly high esteem.