Paolo Porpora (attr.) Lot n° 128

Still life with shells, corals, cherries and a knife oil on canvas 52 x 71 cm Within 19th-century gilt wood frame. Paolo Porpora began his career in Naples, then moved to Rome in 1656 where he became a member of the Accademia di San Luca. A leading figure among the painters of the Neapolitan School of still lifes, he created a peculiar type of composition in which marine scenes, with fish and crustaceans, are approached in the same composition with land animals, such as lizards, snails, and butterflies. As can be seen in the painting presented here Porpora combined together the realistic exactitude of individual objects with the richness and complexity of compositional solutions. The painted coral and shells reflect the seventeenth-century practice of collecting naturalia from foreign countries by displaying them in Heart Cabinets and Wünderkammer, which were frequently used as subjects for this type of painting. For comparisons see in: Nicola Spinosa, La pittura napoletana del 600, Milan, 1984; La natura morta in Italia, edited by F. Zeri and C. Pirovano, Milan, 1989; Gianluca Bocchi-Ulisse Bocchi, Pittori di natura morta a Roma. Italian artists 1630-1750, Mantua, 2005.