ABRAHAM BRUEGHEL Lot n° 172

(Antwerp, 1631 - Naples, 1697) Still life with flowers, fruit, female figure and landscape in the background Signed A. Bruegel F. Romae in the lower center Oil on canvas, 114X157 cm The painting has been declared to be of extraordinary artistic historical interest and subject to notification. Provenance: Rome, Ghiron Collection (1956) Rome, Gina Lollobrigida collection Bibliography: Federico Zeri Archives, no. 85551 L. Trezzani, La natura morta romana nelle foto di Federico Zeri, in La natura morta di Federico Zeri, Bologna 2015, pp. 185-192, note 9 A. Cottino, Abraham Brueghel 1631-1697. A Master of Still Life between Antwerp, Rome and Naples, Foligno 2023, p. 93, no. 38 The painting is a fundamental testimony to Abraham Brueghel's Roman activity, in which the author exhibits all his Baroque exuberance and Nordic talent for the timely description of fruits and flowers, marking the evolution of Capitoline still life in the second half of the 17th century. Nor should we forget the exceptional pictorial tradition of the Brueghel family dynasty, which ours expresses with absolute mastery and modernity, particularly in its innovative scenic and luministic conception, which lucidly delineates forms and embellishes tones. Arriving in the Eternal City in 1659, the painter quickly achieved great success and was fully welcomed into the difficult Roman art world, weaving a long correspondence with the celebrated art lover Antonio Ruffo and the Flemish merchant Gaspar Roomer, until his fame spread among the prestigious collectors of the time, who 'boasted of possessing the results of his brushwork,' so we find mention of his paintings in the Chigi, Pamphilj, Colonna, Orsini and Borghese inventories. Not to be outdone was his success in Naples (1676), well documented by the judgment expressed by De Dominici who judged him the best at painting flowers and fruits, by virtue of the mimesis and scenic amplification of his representations, far removed from the archaic and silent ones conceived by Giovan Battista Ruoppolo and Giuseppe Recco. Returning to our work, there are multiple points of comparison, see for example the similar composition published by Cottino (Cf. Cottino 2023, p. 92, no. 37), assisted for the figure piece by Guglielmo Cortese, following an illustrative formula conceived by Michelangelo da Campidoglio. The collaboration of figure painters with the famous naturamortist is in fact a well-known fact, as is also testified by a 1666 letter to Don Antonio Ruffo, in which he writes that he made still lifes with figures painted by Giacinto Brandi, Baciccio, Maratti and Guglielmo Cortese (Cf. V. Ruffo, La Galleria Ruffo a Messina nel secolo XVII, Roma 1917, pp. 172 ff., ch. IX, pp. 21-64, 95-128, 237-250). However, according to Ludovica Trezzani and the critical annotations of the notification, in this case the work is to be assigned in its entirety to the hand of the master. The idea of depicting 'Beauties Harvesting Fruits' evidently received considerable appreciation and it was Stefano Bottari in 1960 who was the first to publish the paintings, starting with a version preserved in the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden (oil on canvas, 133X98 cm), and later the subject was taken up by Dieter Graf and Eric Schleier (Cf. D. Graf; E. Schleier, William Cortese and Abraham Brueghel, in Pantheon XXXI, 1973, pp. 46-57). Reference bibliography: L. Salerno, La natura morta italiana: 1560 ; 1805, Rome 1984, ad vocem L. Salerno, Nuovi studi sulla natura morta italiana, Rome 1989, ad vocem Still Life in Italy, edited by F. Porzio and F. Zeri, Milan 1989, II p. 788 L. Trezzani, in Pittori di natura morta a Roma. Foreign artists 1630-1750, edited by G. Bocchi and U. Bocchi, Viadana 2004, pp. 117-147 A. Cottino, C. Sisi, Orti del paradiso, exhibition catalog, Caraglio 2015, p. 148