Carnations, tulips, lilies and other flowers in two sculpted vases with peaches, pears and cherries in majolica bowls, on a table,
oil on canvas, 75.5 x 100 cm, framed

Provenance:
Collection of Maria Alfonsa Diaz Pimienta, Countess of Legarda, Spain, since 1684 (as Giuseppe Pollio);
by marriage to Duke Francesco II Gallio, 5th Duke of Alvito, Palazzo Ducale, Alvito (1646–1702);
Collection of Castrucci family, Palazzo Castrucci, Alvito, since at least 1922 (as Giuseppe Pollio);
and thence by descend to the present owner

The present painting, and the following lot, were once in the collection of Duke Francesco II Gallio of Alvito, brought to his collection by the marriage with the Spanish Countess Maria Alfonsa Diaz Pimienta, as documented in 1684 (see Getty Provenance Index, Sale Catalogue I–272, Page 5, Item 0037).

This painting, and the following lot, were originally part of a set of six and were documented as works by Giuseppe Pollio, who is at present an unidentified painter: ‘Altri sei de frutti originali di Gioseppe Pollio à Docati cinque l’uno vaglino Docati trenta D. 30’. In 1839, Palazzo Ducale in Alvito was expropriated, and its contents were sold and dispersed. The six still-life paintings were subsequently documented in an inventory in 1922 in Palazzo Castrucci, also in Alvito ‘Quadri […] del Palazzo già Ducale di Alvito e ora in casa dei Castrucci’. The present painting and the following lot were listed at the number 12 and 13 in the inventory, again as works by Giuseppe Pollio.

One of the present paintings depicts pears and cherries on plates in the foreground, together with an upturned bouquet of strawberries. In the center of the composition stands a majolica stand with peaches. The composition’s somewhat surreal, rigorous separation of the fruit presented in horizontal rows, is interrupted by the pivotal, vertical thrusts, of the lateral positioned vases, which contain a wide variety of flowers.The realism of the fruits is characteristic of the Valencian style of painting, as are the minutely observed jasmine flowers and blackberries in the foreground.

Valencian still-life painting began to flourish in the 1640s, and the school of painting is distinguished by a distinctive, but somewhat archaic style. Tomás Hiepes, or Yepes (circa 1600–1674) was unquestionably the dominant figure in the development of still-life painting in Valencia in the 1640s. (see P. Cherry, Hiepes y la pintura de bodegones en Valencia, in: Arte y Naturaleza: el bodegón Español en el Siglo de Oro, Aranjuez 1999, pp. 271–285).