Cristoforo Munari

Paul Wittgenstein (1887-1961), Vienna;
Österreichische Galerie, Vienna (on loan from 1947);
Restituted to the heirs of Paul Wittgenstein, 2010.

Vienna, Österreichische Galerie, nos. 4407-8, on loan.

R. Bassi-Rathgeb, "Ricerche del Museo della "Hofburg" di Vienna. A proposito di dipinti di Bettera", in Bergomum, 1953, p. 103, no. 4 (as Evaristo Baschenis);
M. Rosci, Baschenis, Bettera e Co. Produzione e mercato della natura morta del Seicento in Italia, exhibition catalogue, Bergamo 1971, pp. 56-57, footnote 51;
M. Rosci, Evaristo Baschenis, Bergamo 1985, pp. 167, 182, nos. 44 a and b, figs. 5 and 6;
F. Baldassari, Cristoforo Munari, Milan 1999, p. 140, nos. 3 and 4;
S. Lillie, Was Einmal War, Vienna 2003, p. 1335.

The paintings are warmer in tone and less murky than the catalogue illustrations suggest. Both canvases have old but still effective re-linings that have not flattened the paint surface. The impasto of the paint is well preserved. To the naked eye, the paint surfaces appear to be in good condition, under a thin layer of dust. There is some frame abrasion to the edge of the canvas and the varnish is discoloured. In the painting illustrated at the top of the catalogue page there is an old restored vertical tear at the base of the neck of the lute as well as a line of retouching measuring 15cm in the upper right of the canvas that are visible under UV light. In the second of the pair, there are only minor re-touchings in the centre and upper right of the composition. Further inspection of the canvases under UV light confirms the good condition of the pictures, revealing just minor localised and painterly strengthenings which are unobtrusive. A new varnish would improve the overall tonality. The paintings are offered in wooden frames in good condition.
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Formerly attributed to Evaristo Baschenis, these paintings were first correctly attributed to Munari by Marco Rosci in 1971. Baldassari (see Literature) considers them early works by the artist, probably painted before he left his native Reggio Emilia for Rome in 1703. The compositional arrangement of the violin and sheet music resting upon a lute in the second painting appears to be the first use of a device that Munari would re-use several times in his career. It appears again, for example, in two pairs of still lifes, one of early date now in a Roman private collection, and the other from his maturity, formerly with the Dover Street Gallery, London, and now in an American private collection.¹  His most important work in this vein is probably the large Still life with musical instruments painted for Ferdinando de' Medici in 1713, now in the Uffizi in Florence.²

Paul Wittgenstein (1887-1961) was a famous pianist and a significant  figure in the musical life of Austria and the United States in the mid-twentieth century. He was the second youngest of eight children of the family of Karl Wittgenstein in Vienna, musical and artistic patrons of the greatest importance. Having lost his right arm in the First World War he commissioned and wrote many outstanding works for the piano left hand, notably a unique concerto repertory from many of the great contemporary composers such as Ravel and Strauss. In 1938 he left Vienna to live in the United States.


1.  For which see Baldassari, under Literature, pp. 140-41, 179-180, nos. 5-6 and 80-81, all reproduced.
2.  Baldassari, op. cit., p. 170, no. 64.