Offered by Antichità Castelbarco
Paolo Porpora (Naples, 1617 - Rome, 1673)
Still Life with Vase of Flowers
First half of the 17th century
Oil on canvas 67 x 49 cm. - Framed 88 x 69 cm.
Provenance: Finarte Milan, 17/12/2001, Lot 288, Estimate: €36,400 - €46,800 (ITL 70,000,000 - ITL 90,000,000)
Critical notes: Expertise Ferdinando Bologna (18 September 1994)
Dear Sir, I have examined the original painting in your possession depicting a still life with a vase of flowers (oil on canvas, 67 x 49 cm), and I believe it to be an authentic work by the 17th-century Neapolitan painter PAOLO PORPORA (Naples, 1617 - Rome, 1673).
This work represents Porpora's pure florist style, which is rarer than his depictions of undergrowth with frogs, lizards and snakes. In the sense of a pure florist, moreover, the painting is not linked to the preferences that Porpora developed mainly during his later Roman period, but to his earlier ones, still in the Neapolitan period, providing beautiful evidence of his ties with the master Giacomo Recco, in whose workshop he entered when he was only fifteen years old.
Going into chronological detail, this work is linked to masterpieces by the master such as “Still Life with Flowers, Fruit and Birds” in the Capodimonte Museum in Naples, which undoubtedly dates from no earlier than 1645-50 and documents the painter in an already mature and personal phase. Nevertheless, the painting dates back to an earlier period, unaffected by the influences of the Dutch painters Otto Marseus van Schrieck and Matthias Withoos, whom he met in Rome at a later date and who would profoundly influence his style, leading him to depict wonderful undergrowth, evoking its mysterious nature to the fullest.
The work can therefore be dated to Naples in the early 1640s, before these Flemish influences, when Porpora was still inclined to interpret the models of the Neapolitan Giacomo Recco in modern terms, distinguishing himself for the intense naturalism with which the colourful corollas are depicted in the different stages of flowering, suggesting the passionate study from life that marks the beginnings of the genre.
In more traditional still lifes, such as the one shown here, among which the “Still Life with Flowers, Melons and Crystal Cup”, also from the Capodimonte Museum in Naples (https://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/scheda/opera/90042/), stands out, Porpora demonstrates his naturalistic nature but also a fervent imagination and compositional delicacy, aided by an excellent chromatic refinement and direction of twilight.
These qualities can be clearly seen in the canvas presented here, whose atmosphere is enlivened by the presence of the refined historiated vase. The work is of very high quality and is in excellent condition. **Finarte Milan, 17/12/2001 (Antique furniture and paintings), Lot 288 - Source: Artprice
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