Giovanni Paolo Castelli, Still Life, 1700, Oil on Canvas, Framed

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Description

Still Life in a Landscape with Fruit and Game
attributable to Giovanni Paolo Castelli, known as Spadino (Rome, 1659 – … Read more Still Life in a Landscape with Fruit and Game
attributable to Giovanni Paolo Castelli, known as Spadino (Rome, 1659 – 1730)

Oil on canvas, 67 x 89 cm, framed 90 x 109 cm.

An open-air setting, with a hilly landscape stretching into the distance in the central section, frames our beautiful canvas, showcasing a rich selection of game and fruit, arranged in the foreground close to the viewer's point of view, occupying much of the visual field with their bright and festive colors.

The style and quality of the work, as well as the pictorial technique of this still life, characterized by subtle vibrations of light and a vibrant chromatic palette, attribute it to the Roman artist Giovanni Paolo Castelli, known as Spadino (Rome, 1659–1730), one of the most important specialists in this genre of painting in late Baroque Rome, who enjoyed a highly successful career between the 17th and 18th centuries.

Analyzing the rich and diverse oeuvre of the Roman master, our canvas can be placed among his rare works. Alongside a selection of fruit—including large melons, ripe figs, dark grapes, and plums—we see an advert for game, presumably at the request of a patron who loved hunting. Alongside various birds, the spoils of a successful hunt, there is also a small green woodpecker, with its characteristic red spot on its head, and a friendly rodent peeking out from behind the tree trunk.

The painter indulges in a skillful and brilliant chromatic texture of surfaces, using a pictorial material rendered with exceptional vibration in its luminous and tactile fullness, fully respecting the taste of the full Roman Baroque.
The Flemish influences, which had influenced Roman Baroque still life, particularly the work of Abraham Brueghel, are inevitable and evident. This piece is attributed to the mentioned designer/maker. It has no attribution mark and no
official proof of authenticity,
however it is well documented in design history. I take full responsibility for any authenticity



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