Franz Godin, called Francesco Codino

Private collection, Munich.

E. Greindl, Les peintres flamands de nature morte au XVII^e siècle, Dereume 1983, p. 338, cat. no. 9, reproduced p. 192, fig. 35 (as Pieter Binoit);
G. Bott, Die Stillebenmaler Soreau, Binoit, Codino und Marrell in Hanau und Frankfurt 1600-1650, Hanau 2001, p. 221, cat. no. WV.C.26, reproduced (as Francesco Codino).

The support is made of a single panel supported by two wood batons on the reverse. The paint surface is stable and the varnish clear and even. There is one surface scratch measuring 12 cm. to the lower right running through the right of the loaf into the fruit on the platter, visible also in the catalogue image. There are some other more minor surface scratches upper left. There has been a degree of movement in the panel, the result of which is two hairline horizontal fractures, stable and barely visible, measuring 13 cm. and 25 cm. in length running from the right margin approximately two thirds up the the panel. Inspection under ultra violet light reveals small retouchings to the dark tones of the background at the right margin, further strengthenings to the grapes and to the fruit upper right. Offered in a simple wood and gilt frame with ripple mouldings in fair condition.
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Codino’s œuvre consists of fewer than thirty known works. It was first established by Stefano Bottari, who noted stylistic affinities with the work of the artist’s northern contemporaries.¹ Bott suggested that Codino was a member of the Godin family, and had trained in the ateliers of (and may have been related to) both Daniel Soreau in Hanau and Pieter Binoit in Cologne, before emigrating to Italy around 1620.²

The attribution is supported by close comparison with a number of other autograph paintings such as a signed and dated work, recorded as with Semenzato, Rome, in 1998.³ It is very similar to this picture in design, differing only in a bowl of strawberries in place of the hazelnuts and bread loaves lower left, and a vase with flowers and a mouse in place of the metal tazza. The ornate tazza in this picture is recorded in only two other works: the first, in the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, belongs to a different composition type altogether. The second, also in Bergamo, is the most similar to this picture, differing only in the arrangement of fruits in the porcelain bowl, the pattern on the stem of the metal tazza, and in size.⁴

The poplar support makes it virtually certain that this painting dates from after Codino's move to Italy.  It probably dates from the 1620s.

 

1. See S. Bottari, ‘Nature morte della scuola di Francoforte: J. Soreau, Peter Binoit e Francesco Codino’, in Pantheon, vol. XXII, no. 11, 1964, pp. 107–114.
2. See Bott, under Literature, pp. 152–75. For a definitive study of Codino’s origins and œuvre, see P. Tosetto Grandi, ‘Franz Godin, detto Francesco Codino’, in Naturaliter, Casalmaggiore 1998, pp. 22–45.
3. Signed and dated 1623. See Tosetto Grandi op. cit., pp. 22, 31, no. 11, reproduced p. 33, fig. 18.
4. Both oil on panel, 42 x 66 cm., both now in the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo, inv. nos. 1498 and 1499 respectively. See F. Rossi (ed.), Accademia Carrara: Catalogo dei dipinti sec. XVII- XVIII, Milan 1989, p. 67, cat. no. 1498, and p. 67, cat. no. 1499, both reproduced.