A casket, a viola, a statuette, a globe, a guitar, a lute, a violin, a mandora, a recorder and books on a folded rug; A statuette, a bowl of pears, an astrolabe, a candelabrum, violas, a violin, a trumpet, a harp, a horn, virginals, books and sheets of music on a folded rug, oil on canvas, each 100 x 143, framed (2)

Literature:
M. Rosci, Evaristo Baschenis in I Pittori Bergamaschi del XIII al XIX secolo, Il Seicento, Vol. III, Bergamo, 1985, p. 84, No. 69a and 69b, p. 134, ill., no. 1 and no. 2 (as Evaristo Baschenis);
E. De Pascale, Evaristo Baschenis e la natura morta in Europa, catalogue exhibition, Bergamo, Accademia Carrara, Milan 1996, p. 250, no. 50 (cited as Bartolomeo Bettera).

There have been many confused attempts in the past to separate the oeuvres of Evaristo Baschenis (Bergamo 1617–1677) and Bartolomeo Bettera (Bergamo 1639 – Milan? post 1699), and it was not until Marco Rosci‘s catalogue published in 1971 that any distinction between the two began to be clarified. Baschenis and Bettara work alongside each other, and Bettera inherited Baschenis’s workshop. Marco Rosci has published the present pair of paintings as fully autograph works by Evaristo Baschenis and states that they are important examples that influenced the work of Bartolomeo Bettera: “fondamentale per l´avvio di Bartolomeo Bettera” (see Literature).

The central period of Baschenis’s career, from the mid-1650s to circa 1665, is characterized by the geometric complexity of his monumental compositions, such as the Musical Instruments with Casket and Globe (Venice, Accademia). These structures became less dense from the mid-1660s on, when he produced compositions of a few prominent objects set in the immediate foreground against a plain backdrop, such as in the Still Life with Musical Instruments (Bergamo, Accademia Carrara). A good example of this late phase of Bachenis‘s work, with its broad spatial setting and dynamic play between objects and background, is the monumental Still Life with Musical Instruments (Brussels, Musée d‘Art ancien).