(Florence, documented between 1630–1653)
Allegories of the Seasons or Allegories of the Senses,
oil on canvas, each 132 x 174 cm, framed, a pair (2)

Provenance:
Private collection, Rome;
where acquired by the present owner

We are grateful to Filippo Gheri for suggesting the attribution of the present painting and for his help in cataloguing this lot.

The present pair of paintings represents an elegantly dressed young woman picking flowers in one and a more modestly dressed woman laying a table in the other. The light is rendered in different ways in the two canvases: it is bright and clear in that with a floral subject, and varying, tending towards twilight, in the other. The subject of these paintings can be interpreted as allegories of the seasons of Spring and Autumn. The selection of flowers and vegetables are individually represented in each according to the Florentine manner of botanical repertories. Indeed, in one of the compositions all the plants in flower within the terracotta planters are specific to Spring and also evoke pronounced scents: narcissi, hyacinths, tulips, lily of the valley and Spanish violets signal a period of the months of March and April. The fruits and food laid out on the table in other work could instead be emblematic of Autumn: here the composition is crowned by a frieze of grapes on vines hanging from a pergola. Alternatively, it has also been suggested that the paintings may depict allegories of the senses - smell and taste

The terracotta planters, the chairs with profiled backs and the straw covered wine flask that appear in these paintings are all specifically Florentine features and they are characteristic of the painter Giovan Battista Cartei, while also revealing the influence of his master, Jacopo Vignali. The domestic settings of these allegories appear realistic, devoid of idealisation and therefore the focus appears to be on the nature of things. Cartei, together with Jacopo Vignali and other members of his studio, participated on the decoration of Casa Buonarroti in Florence. Indeed, in April 1638 Cartei received payment ‘per aver dipinto la stanzetta in volta al pian sopra che fa riscontro nel fin della casa’ [‘for having painted the small vaulted room on the floor above, that backs onto the end of the house’] – (see U. Procacci La Casa Buonarotti a Firenze, Milan, 1965 p. 35, 172) that is the room next to the terrace. This mural decoration, which still exists, consists of an elegant pergola on which rose branches, vines and other fragrant plants climb, and from the openings of which brightly coloured birds emerge. There are striking similarities with the pergola in one of the present allegories. The plants represented in the present allegory of Spring, or Smell, also appear similar to the sparse foliage of slender stems that create a fine texture against the clear blue sky in the frescoes in Casa Buonarotti.

The present pair of paintings can also be compared stylistically to two works signed by Cartei: The Madonna of the Rosary (dated 1631) in the Church of Santa Maria a Limite sull’Arno, near Florence – where the figures, as well as certain naturalistic elements, are comparable, and the Crucifixion between Saints Peter and Paul from the Pieve di San Giovanni Decollato church in Montemurlo, Prato, where the style of painting is especially comparable. Giovan Battista Cartei is documented in the register of the Accademia del Disegno between 1630 and 1653 (see Gli Accademici del Disegno, Elenco alfabetico, ed. by L. Zangheri, Florence 2000, p. 70).