(Ascoli Piceno 1600–1670 Rome)
Peaches, plums, cherries, roses and other fruit in a metallic bowl on a stone ledge,
tempera on vellum, laid down on panel, 29 x 39.3 cm, framed

Provenance:
possibly Graneri collection, Piedmont (according to the wax seal on the back)

The present still life has been traditionally given to Octavianus Monfort (active in Piedmont, documented 1646–1696). However, the pictorial quality and stylistically refined still life of flowers and fruit, created in the tonal contrasts of pink, green and blue, can be compared with two other works on parchment of the same subject, originally from the Palazzo Reale, Turin, and now conserved in the Basilica di Superga. Art historians have been divided over the assignment of these works either to Giovanna Garzoni or Octavianus Monfort (see G. Casale, Giovanna Garzoni. «Insigne miniatrice» 1600–1670, Rome 1991, pp. 190–191, nos. C 27 – C 28. Marco Rosci assigns the two paintings at Superga to Giovanna Garzoni, while Silvana Pettenati refers them to Monfort). The Piedmontese provenance of the present painting is confirmed by the presence on the back of the protective cover sheet of a coat-of-arms representing a castle and sheaths of corn, which can probably be identified as that of the marquises Graneri. The frame also appears to be Piedmontese.

Giovanna Garzoni arrived in Turin in 1632 and remained there for five years at the behest of Christina of France, who employed her as a portraitist. During her residency at the court of Savoy, the painter also continued to practice still life painting, the other characteristic genre of her production, a fact also documented by the inventories of the ducal collections. In addition to those of the Savoy, Garzoni also received commissions from other noble families associated with the court: one of her miniatures of flowers is recorded, for instance, in the inventories of the collection of Amedeo dal Pozzo, Marquis of Voghera, and the cousin of the celebrated Cassiano (see M. Rosci, Octavianus Monfort e la pittura su pergamena nel XVII secolo, in: P. Chiapatti e M. Rosci (ed.), Octavianus Monfort, Turin 1985, p. 12).

Today it is difficult to identify the artist’s Piedmontese still lifes with certainty, however, they strongly influenced local contemporary painters and those of the next generation, and especially Octavianus Monfort, the little documented miniaturist, whose early years are yet to be fully investigated, but who must have trained in close contact with Garzoni.

The present work on parchment presents many points in common with the certain works given to Monfort, both in terms of style and composition, but it is nevertheless characterised by a superior quality of painting, for example the rendering of the perspective of this receptacle is careful and convincing and such quality in execution does not generally appear in work by Monfort. It is therefore possible that this work is one of the few surviving examples of Giovanna Garzoni’s artistic activity in Turin, and so, is an important precedent to her celebrated still lifes painted for Ferdinando II de’ Medici, which are cited in the inventories of the Florentine villa of Poggio Imperiale.

Technical analysis by Gianluca Poldi:

The work was painted on a white parchment. UV fluorescence shows a uniform response, with no evidence of retouching. Before approaching painting, the artist made a meticulous drawing with a dry and thin medium, probably a very sharp black chalk. No particular variations are noticeable between drawing and painting, only minor adjustments, and some elements in the upper right-hand area appear to have been added directly with a brush, without the aid of underlying drawing.

The quality of the drawing and of the painting practice is evidently high and some peculiarities can be observed, such as the choice to paint the surfaces of all the fruits depicted, except for the plums, using a brush tip, with very dense dots, and hatching for the plums, branches and leaves.

The gilding of the fruit stand appears to have been created with shell gold, unlike the table veins that imitate marble, made with a light brown pigment.

Pigments, detected by reflectance spectroscopy, include natural ultramarine in the blue of the plums, indigo mixed to some kind of yellow in the greens and a carmine-type red lake in pinks and reds.