Still Life with a Vase of Flowers, Paolo Porpora (Naples, 1617 – Rome, 1673)

Paolo Porpora (Naples, 1617 – Rome, 1673)
Still Life with a Vase of Flowers (LINK)

First half of the 17th century

Oil painting on canvas

67 cm x 49 cm.
In frame 88 x 69 cm.

Provenance: Finarte Milan, 12/17/2001, Lot 288, Estimate: €36.400 – €46.800 (70.000.000 – 90.000.000 ITL)
Critical notes: Expertise Ferdinando Bologna (18 September 1994)

Dear Sir,
I have examined the original painting of yours, depicting a still life with a vase of flowers (oil on canvas, 67 x 49 cm), and I believe it to be an autograph work by the seventeenth-century Neapolitan painter PAOLO PORPORA (Naples, 1617 – Rome, 1673).
For Porpora, the work represents the pure florist, a rarer form than that of depicting undergrowth with frogs, lizards, and snakes. In the sense of pure floristry, moreover, the painting is connected not to the preferences Porpora developed, especially during his later Roman period, but to his older, Neapolitan, period, proving his connection with the master Giacomo Recco, whose workshop he entered at the age of fifteen.

Going into chronological detail, this work proves to be connected to masterpieces by the master such as the "Still Life with Flowers, Fruit and Birds" in the Capodimonte Museum in Naples, which undoubtedly dates back to no earlier than 1645-50, and documents the painter in an already mature and personal phase.

Nonetheless, the painting dates back to a still ancient period, untouched by the influences of the Dutch artists Otto Marseus van Schrieck and Matthias Withoos, whom he met later in Rome, who would profoundly influence his style, leading him to describe marvelous undergrowth, evoking its mysterious nature to the fullest.

The work can therefore be placed in Naples in the early 1640s, before these Flemish influences, when Porpora was still intent on interpreting the models of the Neapolitan Giacomo Recco in modern terms, distinguishing himself for the intense naturalism with which the multicoloured corollas are described in the different stages of flowering, suggesting that passionate study from life that marked the beginnings of the genre.

In the more traditional still lifes, such as the one proposed and among which the "Still Life with Flowers, Melons and Crystal Cup" also from the Capodimonte Museum in Naples (https://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/scheda/opera/90042/) stands out, Porpora demonstrates his naturalistic nature but also a fervent imagination and compositional delicacy, aided by an excellent chromatic refinement and directed twilight light.

These qualities can be clearly seen in the canvas presented here, whose atmosphere is enlivened by the presence of the refined historiated vase.

The work is of very high quality, and is in excellent condition.

**Finarte Milan, 12/17/2001 (Furniture and Old Master Paintings), Lot 288 – Source: Artprice

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The work is sold complete with a gilded wooden frame and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and descriptive iconographic card.

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