(active in Italy in the first half of the 17th Century)
Tulips, lilies, narcissi and other flowers in a sculpted vase,
oil on canvas, 105 x 90 cm, framed

We are grateful to Alberto Cottino for suggesting the attribution. His written report is available (April 2022).

The present painting belongs to a larger group of characteristic still life paintings among whose typical features is the opulent and expansive arrangement of diverse flowers. For lack of archival clues allowing a persuasive identification of the painter responsible for these works, the archaic and mannerist metal vases that repeatedly appear in his compositions and which are mostly embellished with grotesque motifs – such as the two harpies and the head in the present examples – have become eponymous for this artist. In earlier days scholars believed that a big Roman or Neapolitan workshop had been responsible for the group of surviving paintings, whereas today the insight prevails that, as a result of the huge success of these arrangements among collectors, models were soon to circulate all over Italy, in Lombardy as much as in Rome and Naples, where they were executed by various hands (see A. Vecca, I Maestri del vaso a grottesche, in: La natura morta italiana da Caravaggio al Settecento, exhibition catalogue, Milan 2003, pp. 107–09). This would account for the differences in quality with regard to the composition, observation of nature, and execution, which are sometimes remarkable.

There can be no doubt that the present painting is one of the most superior examples in this group. This can be seen in the vibrant play of light and shadow and in the diversity of the meticulously studied blossoms, including a white lily, a red peony, yellow and red and white and pink tulips, irises, narcissi, anemones, red and pink carnations, roses, fragrant virburnum, lilac, orange blossoms, poppies, marigolds, white violets, jasmine, and many others. Cottino points out: ‘L’opera qui studiata s’inserisce proprio nel novero di questi dipinti arcaici ancora privi di nomi sicuri, ad un livello tuttavia molto alto, cioè tra i migliori esemplari di questo tipo di produzione, per eleganza e scioltezza di segno, il che fa supporre la mano di un pittore di prim’ordine.’ [‘The work examined here precisely fits in with the group of these archaic paintings that have not yet been assigned to a particular name and which reveal a very high level of excellence, which means that it is one of the best examples within this type of production in terms of elegance and fluidity of drawing, suggesting the hand of a leading master.’]

Moreover, Cottino, referring to the exemplariness of botanic treatises circulating in Europe in the seventeenth century, writes: ‘nel quadro qui studiato mi pare si possano cogliere affinità compositive e tipologiche con alcune tavole del De Florum Cultura, pubblicato a Roma nel 1633, sia nella foggia bizzarra del vaso sia nella gamma dei fiori e nella loro disposizione a ventaglio, secondo un gusto che potrebbe aver ispirato l’autore del dipinto. Questo potrebbe anche indicare una data post quem per la realizzazione dell’opera, che comunque a mio avviso non dovrebbe superare la metà del secolo. Tra le innumerevoli composizioni ascritte al ‘Maestro del vaso a grottesche’ quella più vicina all’autore del quadro qui studiato, a mio parere, è la tela passata ad un’asta in Parigi (Neret-Minet, 21 November 2007, lot 13), che presenta decise similitudini nella morfologia dei fiori e nell’eleganza del vaso cesellato, pur se è assai arduo poter ipotizzare un’assoluta identità di mano’. [‘It seems to me that the painting to be examined here bears compositional and typological resemblances to particular plates in the work De florum cultura, which appeared in Rome in 1633, with regard to both the bizarre shape of the vase and the selection of flowers and their fanlike arrangment in a taste that may have inspired the author of the present painting. This could also indicate a terminus post quem as to the realisation of the present work, which in my opinion should by no means be considered to date from past the middle of the century in question. Among the countless compositions attributed to the ‘Master of the Grotesque Vases’, I believe the painting auctioned in Paris (Neret-Minet, 21 November 2007, lot 13) to be the one closest to the picture examined here.’] The two paintings also share the motifs of the crowning lily, the symmetrical placement of irises on either side, and the centrally placed pair of anemones.