- 35
Bernardo Strozzi
Estimate
120,000 - 180,000 GBP
Sold
bidding is closed
Description
- Bernardo Strozzi
- Still life with pink and white peonies in a glass vase and peaches, white roses and fruits on a ledge
- oil on canvas
Exhibited
Genoa, Palazzo Ducale, Bernardo Strozzi, 6 May - 6 August 1995, no. 66.
Literature
B. Suida Manning, 'Bernardo Strozzi as Painter of Still Life', in Apollo, vol. 278, April 1985, pp. 250-51, reproduced plate XVI;
P. Pagano et al. (eds), La pittura del '600 a Genova, Milan 1988, unpaginated, reproduced fig. 539;
A. Cottino, 'Bernardo Strozzi', in La natura morta in Italia, vol. I, Milan 1989, p. 119;
D. Sanguineti in E. Gavazza, et al. (eds), Bernardo Strozzi, exhibition catalogue, Genoa 1995, pp. 230-31, cat. no. 66, reproduced in colour;
C. Manzitti, Bernardo Strozzi, Turin 2013, p. 241, cat. no. 384, reproduced.
P. Pagano et al. (eds), La pittura del '600 a Genova, Milan 1988, unpaginated, reproduced fig. 539;
A. Cottino, 'Bernardo Strozzi', in La natura morta in Italia, vol. I, Milan 1989, p. 119;
D. Sanguineti in E. Gavazza, et al. (eds), Bernardo Strozzi, exhibition catalogue, Genoa 1995, pp. 230-31, cat. no. 66, reproduced in colour;
C. Manzitti, Bernardo Strozzi, Turin 2013, p. 241, cat. no. 384, reproduced.
Catalogue Note
It is only quite recently that Bernardo Strozzi's career as a still-life painter has come to be studied and in part understood. However, there remain considerable areas of confusion over the artistic development of this part of his oeuvre, in part due to our not yet fully understanding his ties with still-life painters from Lucca such as Simone del Tintore and Paolo Paolini whom he is likely to have met during his supposed trip to Rome in 1625.
This painting is one of the few still lifes by Strozzi that is accepted as fully autograph by all scholars.The tripartite design is simple and deliberately unfussy, with most of the objects on a similar pictorial plane. Both the gentle light entering the scene from the left and the cream background pay homage to Caravaggio's Still life of fruits and Flowers in a Basket in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan.1 Strozzi's characteristic thick use of paint can be felt throughout the design, from the white reflection on the vase to the gentler brushstrokes that describe the peonies. The wide range in his technique is emphasised by the more measured and contained approach to the glass vase and the white ceramic bowl lower right.
While Manzitti (see Literature) has suggested that the work is datable to Strozzi's Genoese phase, Suida Manning proposes a dating to the artist's later Venetian years. She is effusive in her praise for the work, commenting on its "'modernity' comparable to Velázquez, almost anticipating the painters of the later nineteenth century in France, even Manet."
1. See S. Schütze, Caravaggio, The Complete Works, Cologne 2009, p. 248, cat. no. 7, reproduced in colour.
This painting is one of the few still lifes by Strozzi that is accepted as fully autograph by all scholars.The tripartite design is simple and deliberately unfussy, with most of the objects on a similar pictorial plane. Both the gentle light entering the scene from the left and the cream background pay homage to Caravaggio's Still life of fruits and Flowers in a Basket in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan.1 Strozzi's characteristic thick use of paint can be felt throughout the design, from the white reflection on the vase to the gentler brushstrokes that describe the peonies. The wide range in his technique is emphasised by the more measured and contained approach to the glass vase and the white ceramic bowl lower right.
While Manzitti (see Literature) has suggested that the work is datable to Strozzi's Genoese phase, Suida Manning proposes a dating to the artist's later Venetian years. She is effusive in her praise for the work, commenting on its "'modernity' comparable to Velázquez, almost anticipating the painters of the later nineteenth century in France, even Manet."
1. See S. Schütze, Caravaggio, The Complete Works, Cologne 2009, p. 248, cat. no. 7, reproduced in colour.