KAREL VAN VOGELAER, CALLED CARLO DEI FIORI OR DISTELBLOOM | Two ornate still lifes: the former with two girls laying out flowers in an urn, the figures by Giacinto Brandi;the latter with a boy holding up a basket of flowers beside two dogs, the figures by Giovan Battista Gaulli, called Baciccio

Private collection, whence acquired by the owner.

Genoa, Palazzo Bianco, Pittori a Genova nel '600 e nel '700, 6 September – 9 November 1969, nos 116 and 117 (as Abraham Brueghel and Baciccio);
Genoa, Loggia delle Mercanzia, Il giardino di Flora. Natura e simbolo nell'immagine dei fiori, 25 April – 21 May 1986, no. 12 (as attributed to Abraham Brueghel);
Genoa, Palazzo Rosso and Palazzo Bianco, I fiori del barocco. Pittura a Genova dal naturalismo al rococò, 25 March – 25 June 2006, nos 86a and b (as Brueghel and Gaulli, and Brueghel and Brandi).

C. Marcenaro (ed.), Pittori a Genova nel '600 e nel '700, exh. cat., Cinisello Balsamo 1969, pp. 278–81, cat. nos 116 and 117, both reproduced (as Brueghel and Baciccio);
L. Salerno, Still life Painting in Italy, Rome 1984, pp. 324–25, reproduced figs 95.1 and 95.3 (as Bartolomeo Guidobono);
F. Simonetti, Il giardino di Flora. Natura e simbolo nell'immagine dei fiori, exh. cat., Genoa 1986, pp. 42–44, cat. no. 12, reproduced figs 30–31 and in colour plates X and XI (as attributed to Abraham Brueghel);
G. Sestieri, Repertorio della pittura romana della fine del Seicento e del Settecento, vol. I, Turin 1994, p. 79 (as Brueghel and Baciccio);
F. Petrucci, Il Baciccio, exh. cat., Milan 1999 p. 48, p. 339, cat. nos 7 and 8, the painting with dogs reproduced fig. 1 (as Brueghel and Baciccio);
A. Orlando, 'Una visita speciale alla mostra del 1969: inedite disquisizioni attributive di Roberto Longhi, Victor Antonov e Angelo Costa', in Genova e i collezionismo del Novecento. Studi nel centernario di Angelo Costa (1901–1976), Turin 2001, pp. 273 and 275, note 73 (as Brueghel and Brandi);
A. Orlando (ed.), Il giardino di Flora. Natura e simbolo nell'immagine dei fiori, Milan 2006, pp. 246–47, cat. nos 86a and b (as Brueghel and Gaulli, and Brueghel and Brandi);
F. Petrucci, Baciccio, Giovan Battista Gaulli (1639–1709), Rome 2009, p. 560, cat. no. D1, dedicated to the still life with dogs (as Brueghel and Baciccio; but both works listed, the latter as Brueghel and Brandi);
Y. Primarosa, Karel van Vogelaer. Un fiorante di Maastricht nella Roma barocca, Rome 2012, pp. 84–85 and 95, reproduced pp. 80–81, figs 53 and 54 (as Vogelaer and Baciccio);
Y. Primarosa, 'Fiori e figure. Nuove proposte per Mario dei Fiori e Karel van Vogelaer con Luigi Garzi, Giovan Battista Gaulli, Anthoni Schoonjans e Girolamo Troppa', in A. Bacchi et al. (eds), La natura morta di Federico Zeri, Bologna 2015, pp. 207–08 and 214–15, notes 36 and 39 (as Vogelaer and Baciccio, and Vogelaer and Brandi).

The canvases have old relinings, and both pictures have recently been cleaned and restored. Both are in remarkably good condition for their size. Inspection under ultraviolet light reveals only scattered, local retouchings.
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