Simone del Tintore

The following condition report is provided by Simon Folkes who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Support The original canvas has been fairly recently relined, probably in the last thirty years, and the lining canvas has been tacked to a new expandable stretcher. While the adhesion between the two canvases is sound, there is a slight undulation to the surface due to the thickness of the lining adhesive which is unlikely to be resolved by tapping out the wedges. Paint layers The surface is marked by a number of small dips in the paint surface. This cupping was probably more widespread but the recent lining has reduced this to a relatively small number of undulations and it quite possible that they could be reduced still further if the canvas was relined again. There is a general scattering of restorations across the painting where old losses have been filled and retouched. These are most noticeable in the fruit at the lower left corner and in the background to the right of the flowers in the basket. An old tear line, which has been filled and retouched, runs across the painting from the red chrysanthemum in the centre, through the iris and into the background on the right. Other restorations have also been applied to cover areas of thinness and loss of glazes across the picture. Some minor abrasion to the paint surface has occurred around the edges of the painting, most noticeably at the bottom left corner and near the top left edge. Varnish coating The painting is covered in a yellow varnish. This is a little patchy and uneven and there is evidence of a couple of water runs in the surface to the left of the flowers. Frame The carved and gilded frame has a few minor chips and losses but is otherwise in good condition.
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This luminous and warm still life was painted by the Lucchese artist Simone del Tintore in the second half of the seventeenth century. The composition is a reduced variant of Simone's monogrammed painting in the Castello Sforzesco, Milan, which is one of a pair and was originally thought to be by the Roman-based Tommaso Salini due to the monogram 'ST' woven into the basket.¹ As early as 1960, however, thanks to stylistic comparison with a still life in a private collection which has an eighteenth-century inscription on the reverse of the canvas, Mina Gregori identified the works as by Simone del Tintore, Pietro Paolini's most gifted pupil. The close similarities between his style and that of Bernardo Strozzi is thought to be due to Paolini's influence, who may well have met Strozzi in Rome.  



1. Oil on canvas, 72 by 133 cm.; see F. Paliaga in M. Gregori (ed.), Natura morta italiana, exhibition catalogue, Rome 2002, pp. 314-15, reproduced in colour.
2. See F. Zeri, La natura morta in Italia, Milan 1989, vol. II, p. 559, reproduced in colour p. 561, cat. no. 664.