Giuseppe Recco

Possibly Diego Felipez de Guzmán, 1st Marqués of Leganés (1580–1655);
Thence by descent;
Until anonymously sold ('The Property of an Aristocratic European Family'), London, Christie's, 27 April 2007, lot 92, where purchased by the current owner.

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Giuseppe Recco. Still Life with Flowers and Pastries. Signed on the paper in the dish. This painting has a firm lining from the early twentieth century and strong Spanish stretcher. The varnish is recent. The texture of the paint surface shows the strong weave of the Neapolitan canvas, with some slightly more marked craquelure visible in a raking light, while a finer, minute, even craquelure can also be seen on closest inspection. There is a narrow strip of canvas added along the top edge with a seam running along the top of the red drapery. Overall the painting is magnificently intact, with the darks remarkably well preserved, including the deep red drapery above and the dark background, both areas which tend to be vulnerable to wear. The pastries are superbly intact in every detail as is the pewter jar behind and dish. Curiously there is some wear in a few more central stronger places, such as the paper with the signature beneath the pastries, and in one or two of the prominent flowers: the yellow tulip, the deep madder of the red rose and pink roses, and the blue periwinkles. There have been a few small retouches visible under ultra violet light, for instance muting the narrow line of the stretcher bar in one or two places and occasional minor cracks. A small knock in the red flower at upper right has been retouched, as has a little line of lost flakes or slight scrape in a dark leaf near the mid right edge, with occasional other past small retouched dents in the upper drapery. However these are minor incidental retouchings in a generally beautifully preserved painting. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This beautiful signed still life was painted by Giuseppe Recco, one of the leading still-life painters in Naples in the second half of the seventeenth century. The Recco family of painters, which included Giacomo and Giuseppe, specialised in still lifes firmly rooted in the Neapolitan tradition, working in a naturalistic style which explored the effects of light on everyday objects such as fish and kitchen still lifes. 

Giuseppe's capabilities, however, meant that he was able to combine these features with a more grandiose and decorative style which included elements found beyond Naples, looking in particular to Rome and the north of Italy. In the present work, probably from the 1670s, the direct style of earlier Neapolitan still lifes makes way for a more theatrical setting, with a red curtain pulled up to the left. The animals, the products of the sea, and the copper dishes of Recco's youthful works have instead been replaced by elegant sweetmeats. The deliberately unbalanced composition, which brings forward the richly coloured and exuberant flower still life to the right, is also found in a signed and similar still life in a private collection.¹

1. See L. Salerno, La natura morta italiana, Rome 1984, p. 214, reproduced p. 218, fig. 52.10.