This catalogue focuses on the major art centers, from Lombardy to Tuscany, Rome to Naples, where the great masters of the Italian still life created their works.
[The Italian Still Life / from Caravaggio to the 1700s] Mountains of fruit, bouquets and garlands of flowers celebrate the beauty of Mediterranean nature. But behind the splendor and abundance lies the gloomy fascination of a memento mori.
This catalogue focuses on the major art centers, from Lombardy to Tuscany, Rome to Naples, where the great masters of the Italian still life worked: Arcimboldo, Caravaggio, Bimbi, Baschenis, Porpora, the “Master of the Hartford”, the mysterious “Pensionante dei Saraceni” and many others.
Forty years after the last major exhibition of this type, this catalogue examines the present state of knowledge among scholars on this particular artistic genre, shedding particular light on the originality of the Baroque still life in Italy with respect to parallel developments in France and the Netherlands.
Florence, 2003