Evaristo Baschenis

Anonymous sale, Milan, Il Ponte, 15 October 2014, lot 532;

Acquired subsequently by the present owner.

Born in Bergamo to a family of several generations of artists, Baschenis was previously remembered as living the provincial life of a priest and painter. It is now clear, however, that he travelled to Rome and beyond, working alongside a large circle of well-known artists and cultivating important patrons in Venice, Milan and Mantua. From the moment he established an independent workshop in 1643, Baschenis dedicated himself to painting still lifes. Almost without exception, he restricted himself to two themes: kitchen scenes with foodstuffs and utensils, as in the present example, and arrangements of musical instruments. He was probably drawn to still life because of its importance in Lombardy, where artists – beginning with Caravaggio (1571–1610) – had created masterpieces in the genre.

Another version of this composition, with minor differences in the anatomy of the large bird at centre, was in the Pelliccioli Collection, Bergamo, in 1971.¹

¹ Oil on canvas, 70 x 115 cm. M. Rosci, Baschenis, Bettera & Co: produzione e mercato della natura morta del seicento in Italia, Milan 1971, pp. 74–75, reproduced fig. 8.