Andrea Belvedere Naples 1652 - 1732

Arguably the most talented still life painter of the Neapolitan Baroque, Belvedere's work was inspired in his early career by his teacher Paolo Porpora and, in particular by the early works of Giuseppe Recco.  Belvedere inherited from this artist the skill of reproducing different aspects of natural subjects with great attention to detail.  There are only two works, a pair of pendants, which survive from his early period, Carnations in the Capodimonte Museum, Naples and Tulips in the Museo Correale Terranova, Sorrento.  Their strong chiaroscuro and refined colors are equally characteristic of his mature work, of which the present work is an example.  Mid-career Belvedere moved towards a new more Baroque opulence inspired by the still lifes of Abraham Breughel and Giovanni Battista Ruoppolo. In the present work we see the artist’s development towards a broader and more fantastic sense of decoration.  His biographer, De Dominici wrote, that “to render [his still lifes] more decorative he enriched them with handsome vases and capricious fountains."  His work of this period anticipated the refined and delicate aspects of European Rococo. Between 1694 and 1700 Belvedere was employed at the Spanish court in Madrid.  After his return to Naples he abandoned painting almost entirely and devoted his last thirty years to literature and the theatre.  Belvedere’s paintings provided an influential model for the succeeding generation of still-life artists, including Tommaso Realfonso, Nicola Casissa and Gaspare Lopez.

We are grateful to John T. Spike for suggesting the attribution to Andrea Belvedere, based on first hand inspection.  Spike points out numerous points of comparison, including the elaborate fountain with a dolphin at left, with Belvedere's signed Still Life with Flowers and Copper Pot in the Museo Correale, Sorrento (Luigi Salerno, La natura morta italiana 1560-1805, Rome 1984, fig. 58.2).