(active in Piedmont, documented 1646–1696)
Peaches, plums, cherries, roses and other fruit in a metallic bowl on a stone ledge,
tempera on vellum, laid down on panel, 29 x 39.3 cm, framed

Provenance:
possibly Graneri collection, Piedmont (according to the wax seal on the reverse);
European aristocratic collection, since the late 19th Century.

This refined composition of flowers and fruit, characterised by the tonal contrasts of pink, green and blue, can be compared with two other works on vellum of the same subject, originally from the Palazzo Reale, Turin, and now conserved in the Basilica di Superga and these works have been alternatively attributed to Giovanna Garzoni or Octavianus Monfort (see G. Casale, Giovanna Garzoni. ‘Insigne miniatrice’. 1600–1670, Rome 1991, pp. 190–191, nos. C 27, C 28).

The Piedmontese provenance of the present painting is suggested by a wax seal of a coat-of-arms representing a castle and sheaths of corn, that can probably be identified as that of the Marchesi Graneri, as well as by the style of the work’s possibly original frame.

Giovanna Garzoni arrived in Turin in 1632 and remained there for five years at the behest of Cristine of France, Duchess of Savoy who employed her as a portraitist. During her residency at the court of Savoy, Garzoni also continued to practice still-life painting, recorded in the inventories of the ducal collections. In addition to those of the Savoy, Garzoni also received commissions from other noble families associated with the court: one of her paintings of flowers is recorded in the inventory of the collection of Amedeo dal Pozzo, marquis of Voghera, and the cousin of the celebrated Cassiano (M. Rosci, Octavianus Monfort e la pittura su pergamena nel XVII secolo, in: P. Chiapatti e M. Rosci [eds.], Octavianus Monfort, Turin 1985, p. 12).

Today it is difficult to identify Garzoni’s Piedmontese still-life production with certainty, however, her work strongly influenced local contemporary painters and those of the next generation, especially Octavianus Monfort, the little documented miniaturist, whose early years are as yet to be fully investigated, but he must have been in contact with Garzoni.

The present work on vellum can be compared to other works by Monfort, both in terms of style and composition, however it is also characterised by a quality of painting, especially apparent in the rendering of the metal platter decorated with embossed ornament. The rendering in perspective of this receptacle is careful and convincing, and it does not appear in any other known work by Monfort. It has therefore been suggested that this work may be one of the few surviving examples of Giovanna Garzoni’s works from her period in Turin in the 1630s, and therefore a precedent to her later celebrated nature morte painted for Ferdinando II de’ Medici in Florence from the 1640s–1650s.