(Rome circa 1631/32 – circa 1675)
A plumed helmet, armour and a lance with a bronze statuette and a figured clock on a partly draped ledge, with a mace and propped shield alongside and a curtain beyond; and
A metallic pitcher and vases, a platter and a bronze statuette on a
partly draped marble ledge, a curtain beyond,
oil on canvas, each 97 x 133.5 cm, framed, a pair (2)

Literature:
G. Bocchi, Antonio Tibaldi detto il Conte, pittore a Roma nella seconda metà del Seicento. Nuove acquisizioni e definitive conferme, in: Parma per l’Arte. Rivista d’arte e cultura, no. XXVII, Parma, 2021, p. 226, figs. 24-25

The two paintings presented here are among the most significant works of the Roman painter Antonio Tibaldi. The second work represents silverware and tableware, while the first one shows a mantle-clock and armour with a shield, a helmet and various weapons intended to reflect and celebrate the patron’s military virtues. In these works, Tibaldi’s pictorial skill reaches an apogee of virtuosity in the description of metallic objects: in the reflective luminosity of the shield, precise rendering of the cuirass, metal spikes of the mace, and reflections of the double handled silver vase.

Antonio Tibaldi’s works predominantly describe displays – ornate carpets, draped over ornamented stone pedestals, on which are arranged all the typical items of the artist’s repertoire. His paintings are usually arranged within horizontal compositions, framed by heavy curtains in the background, such as the present paintings.

Antonio Tibaldi was the apprentice of Francesco Noletti, called Il Maltese (1611–1654) from whom he acquired his complex iconographic repertoire. The artist has only recently been rediscovered by the scholarly community, owing to the discovery of a painting inscribed ‘Il Tibaldi. Romano’ on the spine of a book, and of another which is signed ‘Ant. Tibaldi’ (see: G. and U. Bocchi, Pittori di natura morta a Roma. Artisti italiani 1630–1750, Viadana 2005, pp. 473-90). Subsequent research has therefore focused on parish archives which has turned up the artist’s registration in the Stati delle anime of 1675 in the parish of Santa Maria del Popolo. A survey of the inventories of historic Roman collections also allowed the identification of some of his most powerful patrons: the Barberini (Pope Urban VIII) and the Chigi (Pope Alexander VII). Additionally, in the 1679 inventory of Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna the artist’s name features in relation to various small paintings on copper representing birds and fruits. It is therefore evident from such illustrious patronage that Antonio Tibaldi enjoyed considerable esteem from the Roman elite, which was especially inclined to such sumptuous still-life subjects.