Beskrivning: Se beskrivning i den engelska versionen.

Catalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 55: 

FORMER INV. NO.: KM 794.

TECHNICAL NOTES: The painting’s support consists of two
pieces of medium-coarse plain-weave linen fabric, sewn together
horizontally 2 cm from the bottom edge. The original fabric support
has been glue-lined and mounted with staples on a Martelli-
type strainer. A red ground layer extends to the edges of the support.
The paint layers are abraded, with craquelure. There is a very thick
and discoloured layer of varnish. The painting is in fair condition.
Documented restorations: 1986: Cleaning. Damages filled in. Varnish
regenerated.

PROVENANCE: Martelli 1804.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: NM Cat. 1867, p. 55, no. 758 (as Jusepe de Ribera);
NM Cat. 1958, p. 234 no. 758 (as anonymous 17th century); NM
Cat. 1990, p. 424, no. 758 (as anonymous 17th century).

Following the great flowering of the still-life
genre during the Baroque, the 18th century saw
its progressive decline in Italy, with the exception
of a few isolated cases of eminent painters such
as the Marchigian Carlo Magini. His oeuvre consists
almost entirely of rustic kitchen still lifes,
but the freshness and intensity of his vision create
endless variety in the arrangement of objects
and the play of light upon them. The present still
life, which has remained unattributed until now,
exemplifies the tactile naturalism that marks
Magini’s expressive language, characteristic of a
kind of still life painting that flourished between
Faenza and Fano in the last decades of the 18th
century and the early 1800s. Cloaked in shadows,
the carefully balanced spatial composition is
centered on the polished brass candlestick and
glazed earthenware vessels which, highlighted by
thin filaments of white lead, give off gleaming reflections
of the incisive light coming from the left.
Around these objects are others typical of the
formal repertory of the Marchigian master, familiar
leitmotifs such as the loaf of bread, vegetables
and dead game. These are usually shown laid
out on tables or in darkened niches, on shelves
or ledges, seen from a slightly raised viewpoint,
the illusionistic effect enhanced by the way some
objects seem to protrude into the viewer’s space.
Here, by contrast, the perspective is di sotto in sù,
as would be expected if the painting were intended
to serve, for example, as a sopraporta. In addition
to Magini’s controlled skill in rendering the
shadow cast by the candlestick on the large pot
or the blackish impurities on the earthenware, he
also shows his exceptional aesthetic sensitivity in
breaking up the chromatic timbre: tones of grey
and brown with splashes of colour, ranging from
the rosy hue of the neck of the game bird in the
foreground to the green of the artichokes, and
the white glaze and delicate cobalt-blue decorative
foliate scrolls on the baluster-shaped Italian
majolica jar, probably from Faenza or Deruta.
The affectionate contemplation of everything
pertaining to the rustic world of the kitchen,
removed from any allegorical concerns, combines
with a rarefied, still and almost meditative
atmosphere.

The painting is datable to Magini’s maturity,
c. 1760–70 or a little later, although his work
as a whole shows few indications of a stylistic
evolution from which to draw precise dates for
a chronology. There are several closely related
kitchen still lifes in the collection of the Cassa
di Risparmio of Fano,¹ in which we find parallels
not only in the vertical format and the choice of
motifs – brass candlestick, humble earthenware,
bread and leafy green vegetables – but also in the
curious way in which objects are sometimes piled
on top of others – the cup on the candlestick,
the pan on the large pot. In all of these works
we recognize the same pungent realism as in the
Nationalmuseum painting. At the same time,
the emphatic chiaroscuro and tactile thickness of
the surfaces in the latter differs somewhat from
the softer shadows and the smooth and liquid
technique, without a depth of impasto, which
generally characterize Magini’s work.

A pupil of his uncle, the local painter Sebastiano
Ceccarini (1703–1783) – by whom no still lifes
are known – Magini is thought to have spent his
entire career in his native town, apart from a few
visits to Rome and to Farfa in the Sabine Hills.
The sources of Magini’s distinctive style have
been variously identified. Charles Sterling suggested
that his works are derived from the naturalistic
vision of the 17th-century still-life painter
Evaristo Baschenis,² while in Spike’s opinion,
they are more closely associated with the Florentine
tradition of trompe l’oeil inaugurated early
in the 18th century by the sober compositions of
Cristoforo Munari.³ Magini’s still lifes share an
aesthetic outlook with contemporary trompe-l’oeil
canvases, in that both present a perfectly neutral
description of reality. However, as distinct
from the more elegant and refined temperament
that marks Munari’s sophisticated aesthetic
conception of the kitchen still life,⁴ the present
work demonstrates Magini’s ability to tune up a
notch the rustic air that generally attaches to this
iconography.
cf

1 Cf. Zampetti 1990, for example, nos. 78 and 145, illus. in
colour pp. 83 and 117.
2 Sterling 1952, pp. 56 and 81.
3 Spike 1983, pp. 123–126.
4 On Munari, see Baldassari and Benati 1999. [End]

Utforska konstnärer och föremål som finns i Nationalmuseums samlingar.

Explore the artists and artworks of Nationalmuseum Sweden.

Okänd | Köksstilleben | Nationalmuseum

Okänd | Still Life of Game, Fish, Artichokes,bread and Kitchen Utensils | Nationalmuseum

Foto: Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum 2011