Niccolò Stanchi and Giovanni Stanchi

Anonymous sale, London, Replica Shoes 's, 6 July 2000, lot 195 (as Giovanni Stanchi), for £80,500 (as one of a pair);

With Galleria Altomani, Pesaro, by 2005;

Anonymous sale, Munich, Hampel, 20 September 2012, lot 316 (as Giovanni Stanchi);

Acquired subsequently by the present owner.

J.T. Spike, Il senso del piacere: una collezione di nature morte, Milan 2002, p. 144, under no. 57 (as Niccolò Stanchi);

L. Ravelli, Stanchi dei Fiori, Bergamo 2005, pp. 12–13 and 119–20, no. 117, reproduced in colour p. 41, pl. XXV (as Niccolò and Giovanni Stanchi);

G. Bocchi and U. Bocchi, Pittori di natura morta a Roma: artisti italiani 1630–1750, Viadana 2005, p. 288, no. FS.51, reproduced in colour p. 286, fig. FS.51 (as 'la famiglia Stanchi').

A collaborative work between Niccolò and Giovanni Stanchi – two of the three Stanchi brothers painting in the family workshop in Rome in the 17th century – this painting has been described as an important masterpiece by Lanfranco Ravelli in his monograph on the artists.¹ Datable to the years in which the brothers were patronised by the Colonna, Pamphili and Chigi families, the work was initially conceived as one of a pair of paintings. It remained with its pendant until at least 2005.

¹ Ravelli described this work and its pendant as 'importantissimi capolavori'. Ravelli 2005, p. 120.