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In the ways of ANDREA SCACCIATI (Florence, 1642 - 1710)
Still-life, still life with vase of flowers
Oil on canvas, cm. 75 x 100 – unsigned
Frame size, cm. 100 x 121 x 5 approx.
NOTES: Publication of the catalog of works from the Intermidiart collection. Unsigned work. Certificate of Guarantee and Lawful Origin. Unsigned work. Work with coeval (?) gilded and black lacquered frame in chest of drawers style (defects):
The work proposed here - the second pair, one of which has already been sold - shows an elegant ceramic vase decorated with plant motifs, filled with a variegated bouquet of flowers in vibrant colors and elegantly combined with each other; in the bouquet there are tulips, anemones, daffodils, buttercups and hyacinths as well as other more unusual botanical varieties. In fact, the work, in a good state of legibility, depicts a classic of the iconography of the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s, where it takes up a very widespread and tested scheme, those of the "Nature Morte" composed of bouquets of flowers.
Until now an unpublished and anonymous work, this triumphal vase of flowers has a composition and a disposition structure similar to the widespread models in painting used by Tuscan nature-loving artists between the end of the 17th and the first aim of the 18th century, to then be taken up by other talented successors in the nineteenth century – as in the case of our painting – up to today.
In the rich and varied Florentine late Baroque artistic panorama, an interesting, albeit not prominent, position belongs to the pictorial genre of still lifes, in particular to floral compositions. The undisputed protagonists in this pictorial sector were Bartolomeo Bimbi and Andrea Scacciati. The compositional characteristics of this elegant vase with flowers, in fact, evoke the results of the Florentine painter Andrea Scacciati (Florence, 1642 - 1710).
To the large collection of works by Andrea Scacciati, an artist directed mainly towards a very original stylistic union between the Roman floral representations of Mario de' Fiori and his circle and the Flemish-Dutch naturamortist painting, one can cautiously make a comparison with some works of extreme interest, appreciable for the excellent executive skill, for the descriptive vivacity and for the vibrant selection of colors, often rich in brilliant mineral lighting.
As early as the 1660s, Scacciati inaugurated an intense pictorial activity especially in the field of still life, as confirmed by the biographer-painter Giovan Camillo Sagrestani who recalls how Andrea had been encouraged by the master Lorenzo Lippi "to study all the qualities di fiori” so much that he quickly became the best painter in Florence in this sector, much in demand both by the Florentine nobility and by the Medici family, in particular by the Grand Duchess Vittoria della Rovere who held him in high esteem.
In 1764, information on Scacciati's life was included in the artistic biographies of Orazio Marrini who spoke enthusiastically of his flower compositions made "with admirable strength combined with a stupendous truth and a very lively fire" and of how he was able "with marvelous imitation to represent the playful and vague products of nature” (O. Marrini, Series of portraits of famous painters painted by his own hand following the one already published in the Florentine Museum existing under the abbot Antonio Pazzi with brief information about them, Florence 1765- 1766, I, II, 1766, p. III).
The work, in which the most typical flowers of the artist's repertoire appear, such as the red and mottled tulips with jagged petals similar to tongues of fire and the falling boules de neige with insidious serpentine stems, shows typological characters perfectly comparable to the other pieces of the series, clearly evident also in the common dark background, where the precious ceramic vase and the stems emerge towards the foreground with unexpected pictorial strength and a great Baroque ostentation. Looking at the flowers, in fact, you can recognize different types of clove, described with careful botanical sensibility thanks to the rich textures and shades (Bibbl. S. Bellese, in Studies on painting and sculpture of the '600 - '700 in Florence, 2013) .
The painting is embellished by a coeval frame (19th century?) in gilded and lacquered wood in a chest of drawers style, an integral part of the work, both in terms of artistic and economic value (about € 500/800).
Regarding its state of conservation, the work has an old lining. The pictorial film seems to have been revealed with probable remakes and impoverishing the quality of the work itself. The differences in shades are clearly seen in Wood's light, especially in the background. There are no problems of a conservative nature and the canvas does not seem to need any intervention. In sunlight, a fine craquelé is visible in relation to the period. The measurements of the canvas are cm. 75 x 100. With regard to the frame, however, it has a patina and there are some defects, such as falls, and wear over time. The dimensions of the frame are cm. 100 x 121 x 5 approx., (presence of defects).
Provenance: Coll. private
Publication:
? Unreleased;
? The Myths and the Territory in Sicily with a thousand cultures. UNEDITED QUADRERIA general catalog of paintings from the collection of the cycle "Myths and the territory", Editore Lab_04, Marsala, 2022.
We also guarantee careful packaging with an external wooden crate and internal bubble wrap/cardboard/polystyrene (packaging cost approximately €100.00) and tracked shipping (€100.00 Italy). For export, the work is subject to a request for a Certificate of Free Circulation (European Community) or a Certificate of Export (Extra Community Transport), at the export office (Superintendency of the territory) with the times and costs burdened ( €400/€900, all included: shipping, packing and some exports).
The shipment could be delayed by a few days/weeks for logistical and administrative reasons. 67489423
