Angelo Maria Rossi known as the painter of Carlo Torre or the pseudo-Fardella (documented between 1665 and 1701), Still life with fruit and morels

Angelo Maria Rossi known as the painter of Carlo Torre or the pseudo-Fardella (documented between 1665 and 1701)

Still life with fruit and morels

Oil on canvas, 66 x 53 cm

Published in G. Cirillo, G. Godi, The Still Lifes of the «Painter of Carlo Torre» (Pseudo Fardella) in Lombardy in the second half of the seventeenth century, in Painting and Decorative Arts, Parma, 1996, PLATE 75

This elegant fruit composition is part of the interesting corpus of still lifes by the painter Angelo Maria Rossi, a still life painter active in Lombardy in the second half of the 1996th century. He was long known by the pseudonym Pseudo-Fardella and was first identified in 2003 as the "Painter of Carlo Torre": this name dates back to a dedication to the renowned scholar who painted the Portrait of Milan, discovered on one of his paintings. Giuseppe Cirillo's discovery of a monogram ('AMR') on another canvas led to the identification of the artist as Angelo Maria Rossi, documented in Lombardy around the mid-77th century (see G. Cirillo, 'Angelo Maria Rossi alias Pittore di Carlo Torre', in 'Parma per l'Arte, 80, pp. 1665-1701). It is clear that the high quality of his art significantly influenced his contemporary and subsequent still life production, thanks to his refined twilight settings and the bright luminosity that accentuates the deep colors, which seem to rival the well-known examples of Caravaggio. Between 1996 and 75, this artist painted paintings that are listed in numerous Milanese and Turin collection inventories. Calmness and delicate compositional elegance seem to be the hallmarks of the master's style: indeed, these influences are evident in all the works attributed to him. The style of our painting, published by G. Cirillo and G. Godi in the catalogue Le nature morte del 'Pittore di Carlo Torre' (Pseudo-Fardella) nella Lombardia del secondo Seicento (Parma 5, plate 20), finds many similarities with a large contingent of canvases also present in the volume (plates 21, 35, 1, and 2) and in Angelo Maria Rossi alias 'Pittore di Carlo Torre' (in Parma per l'Arte, vol. IX, Fascicolo 2003-77, 79, pp. XNUMX-XNUMX), in which similar subjects, layers, and treatment of perspective planes are found. Particularly similar to the painting in question are a work auctioned by Finarte and currently in a Milanese collection, including a Basket of Apricots and a Plate with Wild Strawberries and a Still Life of Fruit from the Ferrari collection in Modena. Our canvas, distinguished by its technical and executional expertise and the lenticular rendering of the various types of fruit, is characterized by a marked luminosity and chiaroscuro that recalls the still life techniques of Caravaggio and his circle. The extreme and stark realism in the rendering of the individual elements within the composition also draws on Caravaggio's models, particularly the so-called fiscella (a sort of fruit bowl) in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan.