(Naples circa 1615–1660)
A ligated lamb besides a basket of eggs, an Allegory of Easter,
oil on canvas, 49.5 x 62.8 cm, framed

Provenance:
European Princely collection;
and thence by descent to the present owner

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

This painting appears to be an allegory of Easter, created around the season’s traditional ritual symbols: a lamb, which is emblematic of the Passion of Christ and eggs that signify his resurrection. The composition is a powerful image as the animal and the basket of eggs are placed on a stone step and fill the entire picture plane, thereby conferring on the image an uncommon quality of humility.

The composition, which is clearly inspired by the work of Caravaggio, is also known through another similar version (with slight variations in detail and size, 50 x 76 cm) in the Lodi collection, which was published by Luigi Salerno with an attribution to Giovan Battista Ruoppolo (see: L. Salerno, La natura morta italiana. Italienische Stillebenmalerei aus drei Jahrhunderten Sammlung Silvano Lodi, exhibition catalogue, Florence 1984, pp. 118-119, n. 53; L. Salerno, La natura morta italiana, 1560-1805, Rome 1984, p. 200, n. 53.1, p. 223). Another version of larger size (62 x 93 cm) with more variant details, also ascribed to Giovan Battista Ruoppolo, was offered at Christie’s Rome, 11 May 1993, lot 113. In this version, which at the time of its sale was accompanied by a letter of expertise from Luigi Salerno attributing it to Ruoppolo, the basket of eggs is replaced by a basket full of autumn fruit, thus transforming the painting from an allegory of the resurrection of Christ, into a more generic still life subject.

The principle distinguishing quality between the present painting and the two versions attributed to Ruoppolo, lies in the painterly ductus or hand. Salerno rightly drew attention to how in the painting in the Lodi collection ‘the vision of the surfaces is more delicate and clear, and less interested in volumetric solidity, almost as if announcing the refinement of a de Mura’ and he proposed ‘a date after 1680 when connections can be found with certain works such as the Fish and shells on a beach in the Museo di San Martino’ (see op. cit. Salerno, 1984, p. 118). However, in the present painting the brush strokes are broad: their sizable width can even be seen with the naked eye. The exacting description of the lamb’s fur and the sculptural definition of the basket and the eggs are entirely consistent with the manner of Giovanni Battista Recco. It is sufficient here to recall the famous Still life with a goat head, dishes and food in a kitchen interior conserved in the Galleria Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples or the Still life with a lobster, crabs in a bowl, two eggs and a tortoise formerly with Christie’s Rome, 4 December 1991, lot 40. The attribution of this work, advanced by Lattuada, was received by the subsequent literature (see D. M. Pagano, in: N. Spinosa [ed.], Ritorno al Barocco, da Caravaggio a Vanvitelli, exhibition catalogue, Naples, 2009, vol. I, pp. 382–383, n. 1.223). Moreover, in Lattuada’s opinion comparisons with works by Giovanni Battista Recco, such as the Kitchen interior in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam are decisive: here the near metaphysical atmosphere is in perfect accord with the present painting.

On the basis of this discussion it is therefore reasonable to believe that the the present painting by Giovanni Battista Recco is the prototype for the other versions attributed to Giovan Battista Ruoppolo, here mentioned for the purposes of comparison. The present painting is not only an important new addition to the oeuvre of Recco, but it marks a significant point in the tradition of seventeenth century Neapolitan still life painting.