Research
Oil on canvas. One painting depicting a baroque interior furnished with a variety of objects including tapestries, musical and scientific instruments, a chess board and a parrot. The other depicting a table covered and surrounded by billowing damask, and set with numerous objet d’art including chargers, ewers, a mirror and a clock.
This highly interesting pair of Italian late-Renaissance paintings was executed by an artist working in a specific mode of still life painting in the early 17th century devoted to the presentation of sumptuous objects and realistically rendered textiles in an interior setting. “Rome was the epicenter for producing this typology of still-life,” and the ‘artistic patriarch’ of this group of painters, known as Fioravanti (fl. ca. 1650), excelled at rendering rich draperies, vases, fruit, flowers and musical instruments. A compelling possibility for the author of the present painting is Carlo Manieri (fl. 1662-1700), who almost certainly passed through Fioravanti’s workshop.
Full research report available on request.