Still life with pumpkin, grapes, pomegranates, figs and glass cup, Giovanni Paolo Castelli known as Spadino (1659 Rome-1730 Rome)

Giovanni Paolo Castelli known as Spadino (1659 Rome - 1730 Rome)

Still life with pumpkin, grapes, pomegranates, figs and glass cup

Oil on canvas, 52 x 162 cm

With frame, 63 x 171 cm

The work presents itself as a sumptuous still life which, in style and composition, can be linked to the production of the Roman painter Giovanni Paolo Castelli, known as Lo Spadino.

At the center of the scene is a glass basket overflowing with fruit, including succulent peaches and figs. Around it, a profusion of diverse fruits unfolds: bunches of grapes, both dark and velvety and pale and transparent, intertwine with the vivid red of split pomegranates, waxy-skinned apples, and rough-textured quinces. A gigantic, creamy-yellow pumpkin, placed in the foreground, captures the eye with its complex texture, serving as the visual fulcrum of the composition.

The artist Giovanni Paolo Castelli, known as Lo Spadino, is considered today one of the most important representatives of the Roman school of still life painting of the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

The biographical and artistic profile of Giovanni Paolo Castelli (Rome, 1659 – ca. 1730), known by the nickname "Spadino," is set in a crucial transitional context for still life painting in Rome. His work, while rooted in the seventeenth-century figurative tradition, prefigures stylistic dynamics typical of the Rococo taste and eighteenth-century collecting culture. The scant documentary sources, often limited to biographical notes and attributions, do not allow for a complete reconstruction of his educational path, but they do allow us to outline a decisive influence of the Roman context. Giovanni Paolo Castelli's birthdate, April 8, 1659, is documented, disproving the previous hypothesis of his Neapolitan origins. His artistic training developed in a family environment already linked to painting: his elder brother, Bartolomeo Castelli (1641–1686), was also an accomplished still life painter. Bartolomeo's premature death likely marked a turning point for Giovanni Paolo, who inherited his clientele and commissions, consolidating his position in the Roman market. The most controversial and significant biographical event concerns his imprisonment for murder between 1680 and 1683, an episode that raises questions about his personal life but does not appear to have compromised his subsequent artistic career. His stylistic maturation owes much to Rome's vibrant cosmopolitan environment. Although there is no direct evidence of a formal apprenticeship, it is speculated that his work was influenced by leading figures of Northern European painting present in the capital, particularly Abraham Brueghel (1631–1697) and Franz Werner von Tamm (1658–1724). The geographical proximity to Brueghel, whose move to Naples marked a separation from Rome, is particularly significant. The opulence and sumptuousness of Spadino's compositions, characterised by an almost "random" arrangement and an abundance of fruit, denote a clear dialogue with Brueghel's pictorial language, oriented towards an almost sensual celebration of nature.

Spadino's work is distinguished by a series of distinctive features that make him a recognizable artist. His compositions typically focus on piles of fruit, often exotic and in various stages of ripeness, which almost entirely cover the canvas. Unlike his more austere and symbolic still lifes, Spadino favored a representation that emphasizes the richness of color and the variety of textures. His work enjoyed considerable success in the eighteenth century, as evidenced by the presence of his paintings in prestigious private collections and museums, such as the Pinacoteca Civica Fortunato Duranti. His death in Rome around 1730 did not mark the end of the family painting tradition, which was continued by his son Bartolomeo Castelli (1696–1738), known as "Spadino the Younger," confirming the enduring role the Castelli family played in the history of Roman still life painting.

Several foreign museums hold still lifes by Castelli; the National Museum in Stockholm; the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle (Durham); the Fesch Museum in Ajaccio (painting from the collection of Cardinal Fesch); museums in Beauvais, Besançon, and Troyes; the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; the Wadsworth Athaeneum in Hartford, Conn.; and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The canvas's unusual, elongated, horizontal format was intended to embellish a noble salon, and in particular, it was intended to be placed above benches with a clearly decorative function.