Gilardo da Lodi (active in Lodi and Milan, known in 1716), Still life of grapes and pears

Gilardo da Lodi (active in Lodi and Milan, news in the year 1716)

Still life of grapes and pears

Oil on canvas, 51 × 68 cm

Critical sheet Prof. Alberto Crispo

The present oil on canvas painting depicts a still life of grapes and pears. The bunches are arranged in a cascade, resting softly on the pears and the stone shelf, almost completely obscured by the fruit that fills the entire canvas. The cascading arrangement of the grapes, as well as the alternating white bunches in the light and black ones in the shadows, is typical of Gilardo da Lodi's style (documented since 1716), along with the reddish reflections that bathe the entire composition of fruit.

Very little biographical information is available about the artist, who worked between Lodi and Milan. Indeed, the name Gilardo da Lodi is not even documented in any source. The only chronological clue is the signature "del pittore Gilardi Lodigiano, 1716" on the back of some paintings of unknown location but photographed by Carlo Volpe. From this documentation, it is assumed that Gilardo, the name by which historians refer to the painter, is not his given name but rather a variation of Gilardi, the artist's surname (which was, incidentally, quite common in the Lodi area at the time), and that his date of birth is reasonably still in the 17th century. Nothing is known about his training, although some scholars have hypothesized a discipleship, or at least a collaboration, with Giuseppe Volò, known as Vicenzino (c. 1662-1700). This theory is supported by a pair of ovals, one by Vincenzino and the other attributed to Gilardo, and by the Still Life with Grapes, Pears, Plums, Pumpkins, Peaches, and Flasks of Wine, placed against a plinth belonging to the provincial administration of Lodi. Here, scholars attribute the execution of the fruit to Gilardo, while Vicenzino is credited with the elements at the base, as well as the inverted plinth in the background. Gilardo da Lodi certainly had contact with other Milanese artists besides Vicenzino, such as the so-called Carlo Torre Painter (also known as Fardella, monogrammist AMR, or Angelo Maria Rossi). Gilardo's further collaboration with Milanese artists is attested by the cycle of four canvases depicting still lifes of fruit accompanied by cherubs, now in the Civic Museum of Lodi. Accurate comparisons of this painting with other known works by Gilardo can be made with Bunches of Grapes with Plums, Pears, Pumpkins, and Medlars and Bunches of Grapes with Peaches and Figs, both in a private collection, featuring the painter's characteristic cascading arrangement of the bunches. A similar composition is also found in Cascade of Grapes with Pears, Peaches, Quinces, and a Vase in the Background, in a private collection in Casalmaggiore. The horizontal cascade of grapes on canvas also recurs in Compositions with Fruit and Grapes, in a private collection in Cremona, and in Grapes, Pears, Cherries, Watermelons, and Quinces in the Pinacoteca Malaspina in Pavia.

The hypothetical apprenticeship under Vicenzino, or in any case a collaboration with him, is also highlighted in the canvas under examination in which the rapid and vibrant rendering of the grapes typical of the Milanese master is evident.

The object is in good condition

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