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Catalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 91: 

FORMER INV. NOS.: 134 (M. 1796–97); 458 (F. 1798); 167 (M. 1804);
KM 790.

PROVENANCE: Martelli 1804.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sander 1872–76, III, p. 107, no. 167 (as Spadino);
NM Cat. 1958, p. 236 (as anonymous, 18th century); NM Cat. 1990,
p. 429 (as anonymous, 18th century).

The present painting is attributed to Spadino
in Fredenheim’s catalogue and by Corvi and
Tofanelli.¹ Sander’s transcription of Corvi and
Tofanelli’s attribution in fact reads: “Spadini.
Frutte. Ovato”.² The plural of Spadino is no
mistake; rather, it is yet another example of Corvi
and Tofanelli’s great knowledge and of how a
study of their attributions can yield facts that
substantiate the hypotheses of modern research.
As described in the entry for NM 33 (cat. no.
90), “Spadino” was in fact a sobriquet for three
generations of artists from the same family. Corvi
and Tofanelli were apparently sure that the painting
originated from the family studio, but chose
not, or deemed it unnecessary, to specify which
of the “Spadini” had painted it; in doing so, they
have also given us an indication of how paintings
attributed to Spadino were viewed at that time.

If the painting is to be attributed to a specific
Spadino, it should be to Giovanni Paolo Castelli.
Allowing for superficial differences which could
be ascribed to the fact that the present work has
been heavily varnished and the other has not,
there is for example great similarity between the
depictions of grapes in this picture and in NM
33. We find the same kind of thin, white crosshatched
highlights in the grapes, coupled with the
“clouded hue” realized by somewhat broader and
rounded, almost transparent, white brushstrokes
which also outline the fruit. Spadino was completely
unknown to Fredenheim, and his work was
therefore naturally listed under “D’Écoles inconnues”
in the latter’s catalogue of the Martelli Collection.
This ignorance was reiterated during the
19th and 20th centuries, despite the burgeoning
research concerning Spadino, and in the 1990 Nationalmuseum
catalogue of European paintings
the present work was still labelled as “Unknown
Italian artist, 18th century”.³
dp

1 NM Archives, Kongl. Museum, F:1, Catalogue du Cabinet
de Martelli (à Rome), no. 458.
2 Sander 1872–76, III, p. 107, no. 167.
3 NM Cat. 1990, p. 236. [End]

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Giovanni Paolo Spadino | Stilleben med frukter | Nationalmuseum

Giovanni Paolo Spadino | Still Life with Fruit | Nationalmuseum

Jens Bäckström/Eurobild AB / Nationalmuseum 2013