A still life with grapes and pomegranates, oil on canvas, 51.9 x 67.3 cm, framed

We are grateful to Professor Alberto Cottino for identifying the present painting as a late work by the Acquavella Master. (written communication).

This unpublished painting is an important document of the development of 17th Century Roman still life painting which displays a masterful rendering of fruit. The manner in which the grapes occupy the pictural space is one of the reasons why this painting was first compared to known works by this master. Professor Cottino succeeded in confirming the painting as a fully autograph work by the Acquavella Master.

This mysterious painter received his name from a Still Life of Flowers and Fruit once in the Acquavella Gallery in New York. Cottino was able to compile an entire group of works that were related to such artists as Luca Forte, Angelo Caroselli, Giovanni Battista Crescenzi, and Pietro Paolini. The stylistic correspondences between the present composition and the painting formerly in the Acquavella Gallery are strong and convincing. The exuberant composition, almost bursting out of its boundaries, the colouring, and the distribution of light and shadow are typical features of the Acquavella Master, who is still under the impact of Caravaggism, but nevertheless has taken a decisive step here towards Baroque still life painting. For this reason, Cottino assigns the painting to the master’s late period, between 1630 and 1640. The present picture is also closely related to a Still Life with a Basket of Fruit and Two Boys by the Acquavella Master, sold at Sotheby’s, New York, on 28 January 2000 as lot 132.