(Rome ca. 1630-nach 1698 Imola)
Kitchen interior with female figure; Interior with writing figure (The Pharmacist),
oil on canvas, each 73,2 x 98 cm, framed (2)

Provenance:
European private collection

The two paintings, conceived as matching counterparts, are typical of the work of Giovanni Domenico Valentins and depict the interior of a kitchen and of a pharmacy. In the former, various mundane objects, copper pots, dishes and tableware are spread across the floor for maximum effect. The scene recalls the two signed Kitchen interiors (dated 1698, private collection, Modena), which likewise depict a crowded composition of kitchen utensils on the floor (cf. F. Baldassarri, Gian Domenico Valentino, in: La Natura morta in Emilia e in Romagna, ed. D. Benati and D. Peruzzi, Milan 2000, p 260–269, ill. 273–274).

The pharmacy interior, on the other hand is closely related to a monogrammed version at theMusée Fesch in Ajaccio (Inv. 852-1-461) which employs the same elements, although with slight variations: a half-open cupboard, a coal basin, small bottles and pharmaceutical vessels on various shelves, and the portrait above the door. Similar to composition of kitchen interior, human figures absorbed in their activity can be made out in the background.

Giovanni Domenico Valentino worked in Imola and mainly in Rome, where his paintings are documented to have been in the collection of Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili (1653–1729) in 1725. Andrea G. de Marchi comes to the conclusion that the painter is a certain „Gian Domenico Valentino droghiere“ listed in an index of artists working at Sant’Agnese between the 1670s and the 1680s (cf. A. G. De Marchi, Il Palazzo Doria Pamphilij al Corso e le sue collezioni, Florence 1999, p 231, note. 112).

We are grateful to Andrea G. De Marchi, who confirmed the attribution of both paintings after inspecting it in the original.