The Pseudo-Fardella (or 'Pittore di Carlo Torre')

Anonymous sale, Milan, Sotheby's, 12 June 2001, lot 225.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The original canvas is lined and the paint layer is stable. There has been extensive retouching throughout the paint surface including to a vertical stretcher mark where there has been paint loss, to the edges, an area left of the marrow, and lower foreground. These can all be seen plainly under U-V light along with other pin-prick losses. There is very little varnish discolouration."
"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 painting is by an artist around whom a number of works have been grouped under the pseudonym 'The Pseudo-Fardella', due to their stylistic similarity with works by the Sicilian painter Giacomo Fardella di Calvello. Although close to Simone del Tintore, this artist was probably active in Lombardy during the third quarter of the 17th century. He has more recently been named 'Pittore di Carlo Torre' on the basis of a signed pair of still lifes painted in circa 1662 for the Milanese writer Carlo Torre (c.1620-1679) ¹. The Pseudo-Fardella's works are characterised by a colourful palette and the stark lighting of the objects, as well as by the manner in which the still-life elements are artificially arranged on different planes (compare, for example, the tondi in the Depositi delle Gallerie Fiorentine, or the more extensive compositions including baskets (Cirillo & Godi, op. cit., plates 5-10 and 31-32). Certain elements reappear in other works by the artist: a group of mushrooms similar to those depicted here can be seen in a painting in a private collection, Florence (idem, plate 30); and the pigeon perched on the basket here recurs in an identical position in an oval painting in the Gallerie Statali, Florence (idem, plate 17).

1. See G. Cirillo & G. Godi, Le nature morte del 'Pittore di Carlo Torre' (Pseudo-Fardella) nella Lombardia del secondo Seicento, Parma 1996, pp. 90-92, reproduced in colour plates 64-66).