(Florenz 1648–1725) Exotic birds from the aviaries of Grand Duke Cosimo III of Tuscany: ducks, an owl, a falcon, and two parrots in a vast landscape, oil on canvas, 119.4 x 151.1 cm, original carved and gilded 18th-century frame. Please contact Dr. Alexander Strasoldo for additional information for this painting 

Provenance: ex Collection of the Dukes of Caylus, Château de Saint Chamant/Auvergne (inscription on the reverse).

We are grateful to Dr. John T. Spike and Professoressa Mina Gregori, who have independently identified the present painting as a characteristic work by Bartolomeo Bimbi (e-mail messages).

Under the reign of Cosimo III, the Medicis‘ famous aviaries developed into a collection of zoological interest, and the Grand Duke became known for his passion for exotic birds throughout Europe. Deeply devout , a vegetarian, who was interested in animal and plant life and in the natural sciences, he was famous for his „unbloody“ hunts, where the game was caught, but not killed. Cosimo III, who reigned until 1723, had his most prominent aviaries portrayed by various artists. His court painter, Pietro Neri Scacciati, who had been trained by his father Andrea, produced a series of group portraits of Cosimo‘s most important birds for the duke‘s summer residence, the Villa dell‘Ambrogiana. Our painting may have formed part of that series, parts of which are now in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. That our painting does not depict species of birds in a stereotype fashion and as a purely decorative arrangement, but renders specific and individual birds, is proven by the single portrait of a white parrot in the lower left corner, which Scacciati seems to have executed at the same time as the rest of the painting. Compare the exhibition catalogue Natura Viva in Casa Medici, Animals and Birds from Palazzo Pitti, Florence 1985/86. The exhibition was the first to explore this genre of painting in Florentine art history in general and our Scaccati´s oeuvre in particular.

Provenance: ex Collection of the Dukes of Caylus, Château de Saint Chamant/Auvergne (inscription on the reverse). We are grateful to Dr. John T. Spike and Professoressa Mina Gregori, who have independently identified the present painting as a characteris