Bernhard keil, called Monsù Bernardo Helsingborg 1624 - 1687 Rome and Michele Pace, called Michelangelo del Campidoglio

Thomas Jones (d.1848), The Charterhouse, Hinton, Somerset;
Thence by descent to the present owner.

Inventory of all the Household Furniture...Paintings, Prints...at Charterhouse Hinton, Somerset, entailed by the Will of the late Thomas Jones Esquire, 1848, p. 6 (as by Campidoglio);
M. Heimbürger, Bernardo Keilhau detto Monsù Bernardo, Rome 1988, p. 245, no. 184, reproduced (as by Keil and Abraham Brueghel);
L. Salerno, Nuovi Studi su la natura morta Italiana, Rome 1989, pp. 152.53, no. 150, reproduced (as by Brueghel or Campidoglio);
L. Trezzani, in G. and U. Bocchi, Pittori di Natura morta a Roma.Vol. I. Artisti Italiani 1630-1750, Viadana 2005, pp. 418 and 443, footnote 26 (as Keil and Campidoglio).

The following condition report is provided by Rebecca Gregg who is an external expert and not an employee of Sotheby's. The original canvas appears to be good condition, lined onto a secondary support canvas and the adhesion between these two layers appears stable. There is a pronounced canvas weave, however, there are no significant planar deformations and the overall tension is adequate. The paint layers appear in relatively good condition. There are no obviously recent damages or loss and the adhesion between the paint and ground layers and the support appears stable. There is evidence that the painting has been restored in the past. There are multiple layers of over-paint scattered throughout the painting. The majority of this appears excessively applied. There are areas of abrasion present and the dark ground would also have become more prominent as the paint layers ages, however the over-paint in the girls face does appear to cover the original paint. There is also a glue-like substance which fluoresces white under ultra violet examination. This layer has been applied across areas of the surface in the top right, along the lower edge and at the site of damage to the left of the young girl. It is unclear why this has been left on the surface, as it also appears to cover original paint. The over-paint present appears ‘brushy’ rather than covering distinct losses and heavily applied. It has also been used to strengthen elements of the composition. There are remnants of a discoloured natural resin varnish, beneath a matt modern varnish applied on top. The painting was examined in the frame.
"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."

Michelangelo Pace's fame as a painter of still life in his own day is attested to by numerous documentary sources and inventory entries, and the Abbot Luigi Lanzi, writing in the 18th century would later refer to him as "eccelente nei frutti e quasi il Raffaele di tali pitture".  In 1654 three paintings by 'Michelangelo fede di Campidoglio' (named thus after where he lived in Rome) appear in the inventory of Marcantonio Colonna and his association with the family would last until at least 1661, when payment is recorded for two fruit pieces in Connestabile Lorenzo Onofrio's collection. Between 1658 and 1660 he is documented as working for Cardinal Flavio Chigi, whose uncle was Pope Alessandro VII. In April 1665 he was elected to the Accademia di San Luca, and thereafter regularly attended the Academy's congregations until September 1668. Even after his death his paintings continued to be sought after by a wide range of collectors, notably English Grand Tourists.

The present work is a particularly fine and large example of Campidoglio's work. The concept of large open-air arrangements of fruit, often accompanied by full-length figures or animals looks back to painters such as Michelangelo Cerquozzi and was among his most important contributions to the development of Roman still life painting at this period. The design of richly coloured and impastoed fruit cascading across uneven rocky steps is wholly typical of his work, and the compositional devices of a small lizard and broken bamboo cane act almost as his signature. The monkey is probably Pace's own work, for among the works painted for Cardinal Chigi were four animal paintings, which still survive today.¹ The girl, however, is the work of his occasional collaborator the Dane Bernhard Keil, who was in Rome from 1656 until his death. Another such, perhaps representing an Allegory of Autumn is in a private collection.²  The two are of similar dimensions and could perhaps have originally been conceived as pendants. The composition is also known in another closely related version, which also includes a monkey but in which the figure of a girl has been replaced by a startled boy, although in this case the identity of the figure painter is not known.³  All these works probably date from around 1660, and all look back to Pace's most ambitious work of this type, the large Fruit with a vase of roses and two children which Trezzani identifies with a work among those purchased by Marcantonio V Colonna in 1654.⁴

1. These are now in the Palazzo Chigi in Ariccia. See I. Faldi, "I dipinti chigiani di Michele e Giovanni Battista Pace", in Arte Antica e Moderna, XXXIV-XXXVI, 1966, pp. 144-50;
2. See Heimburger, under Literature, p. 244, reproduced fig. 183.
3. Formerly in the collection of Sir Martin Wilson, Bt., and sold in these Rooms, 11 December 1991, lot 8 (£82,000).
4. 147 by 197 cm.; now in a private collection. See Trezzani, under Literature, p. 409, reproduced fig. MPC.5.