Bartolomeo Bettera

This large pair of still-lifes replete with various musical instruments and other objects was painted by Bartolommeo Bettera, an Italian still-life specialist influenced by Evaristo Baschenis, in whose Bergamo workshop he probably worked. Indeed, the less-crowded canvas with the inlaid cabinet at left directly follows a signed still-life by Baschenis formerly in the Poletti collection in Milan but more recently in a private collection, Montreal.¹  The second canvas, however, a more crowded scene that features an elaborate ewer at left, is a composition entirely of Bettera’s own creation. It visually embodies Bettera’s shift to an independent style, one distinguished by more elaborate and Baroque, a richer palette, and a more dense and dynamic arrangement of objects. 

1. M. Rosci, Baschenis, Bettera & Co., Milan 1971, pp. 119-120, reproduced fig. 95. See also Fondazione Federico Zeri Catalogo Fototeca no. 84037.