Still Life In The Open Air - Aniello Ascione Late '17th century

Painting, oil on canvas, measuring 74 x 99 cm without frame and 92 x 115 cm with a splendid contemporary frame by the painter Aniello Ascione (Naples, late 17th century), depicting an outdoor still life, appraised by G. Bocchi.

A pupil of Giovanni Battista Ruoppolo (Naples 1629 - 1693), Aniello Ascione was one of the leading Baroque interpreters of still life painting in Naples.

Ascione always followed in Ruoppolo's footsteps, the master, of whom he was certainly the most talented pupil, reached such high levels of reinterpretation of his art that it became almost indistinguishable, especially in the rendering of bunches of grapes, the most characteristic fruit reproduced by both.

The practice of signing some paintings with a monogram consisting of two intertwined letters has made it possible to frame his production in a very clear way and to highlight his independence from Recco, Brueghel and Belvedere.

As far as we know, Ascione always devoted himself exclusively, as in our canvas, to representations of fruit in the open air, ranging from small canvases, of which the painting in question is emblematic, to larger ones such as the nature scene in Naples at the Capodimonte Museum or the Correale Museum in Sorrento.

In paintings around one metre in length, such as our beautiful work under consideration, the dominant element consists of the group of fruits in the foreground, with the landscape merely suggested in the distance.

However, it is essential to note that Ascione's canvases are all characterised by a strong luminism invading the foreground, such as to make the fruits emerge with a powerful plasticity.

Watermelons, pomegranates, peaches and plums are depicted at the peak of their ripeness, when everything becomes magnificence, light and colour.