The Estense Gallery in Modena acquires two rare still lifes from the 17th century

Two new acquisitions for the Galleria Estense in Modena: two still lif es by the so-called Master of Hartford, a name by which an artist working in the early 17th century is identified, arrive at the Emilian museum. The two works, Rising with Figs, Peaches and Grapes, Vase of Flowers and Fruit and Rising with Grapes and Peaches, Vase of Flowers, Fruit and Butterfly, were made in the early 17th century and were purchased by the Ministry of Culture, which has destined them for the Estense Gallery: from June 16 to September 16, 2018, they are shown to the public in preview, in frames purchased by theFriends of the Estense Galleries Association.

The author, active in early 17th-century Rome, is called the “Master of Hartford” because a Vase of Flowers and Fruit attributed to him is located at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, United States. This work shows similarities with Caravaggio ’s early production, and since the 1950s scholars have attributed a nucleus of about ten additional works to the Master of Hartford, including those from Modena. The pair of still lifes features the typical elements of the Hartford Master’s paintings: the analytical light, the glass cruet in which the flowers are immersed, and the presentation of fruit on a white tablecloth against a dark background. It is speculated that the two works came from the collection of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, who was certainly in possession of other works by the Hartford Master.

In fact, the two works were formerly located at Villa Parisi Borghese, in the Monte Porzio Catone area (in the province of Rome): the villa in 1614 was purchased by Scipione Borghese himself and remained in the family’s possession until the late 19th century. The two canvases have passed through the market several times since 1972: notified by the Ministry in 1994, they were bought by the Ministry at auction, in Milan, in 1995. However, due to a legal dispute, which was resolved only this year, the state had not been able to exhibit them, and the works lay in the deposits of the Galleria Estense, which can now finally show them to the public.

The two works, says Federico Fischetti, one of the curators of the Galleria Estense, represent “the dawn of a different sensibility that directs Italian painting toward a new relationship with reality and the everyday. Fresh flowers and ripe fruit, posed under an analytical light, are charged with meanings alluding to the transience of life, the continuous regeneration of nature. Soon thereafter, the success of this poetics and of alternative research conducted by northern European masters led to the spread of specialized artists and workshops everywhere. Losing something of its initial tension, still life would become a highly successful decorative genre for much of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.”

Master of Hartford, Rising with Figs, Peaches and Grapes, Vase of Flowers and Fruit (c. 1600-1602; oil on canvas; Modena, Galleria Estense)

Master of Hartford, Riser with grapes and peaches, vase of flowers, fruit, and butterfly (c. 1600-1602; oil on canvas; Modena, Galleria Estense)

The Estense Gallery in Modena acquires two rare still lifes from the 17th century

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