(Cremona 1581–1651)
Fruit dish with peaches,
oil on panel, 34 x 40 cm, framed

We wish to thank Professor Alberto Cottino for suggesting the attribution after examining the painting in the original.

This present painting has been traditionally attributed to Fede Galizia, but Cottino maintains that it should instead be given to the other great exponent of the early Lombard still life movement, Panfilo Nuvolone. He was a native of Cremona but active in Milan probably before 1608, and is still at times confused with Galizia. This panel seems to be a variant of a composition repeated at least twice by Panfilo Nuvolone (see L. Salerno, La natura morta in Italia 1560-1814, Rome; Ugo Bozzi, 1984, p. 64 figs. 16.3 and 16.4). It maintains the same arrangement of the fruit dish and peaches in their central position and type, but presents a series of important structural variations compared to the two paintings published by Salerno: in the first one, for example, the type and arrangement of peaches are identical, but the fruit dish is a different one. Moreover, instead of a whole and a cut peach on the lower left, there are two wood-snipe lying on the table. And in the second picture, which is very similar, the two jasmine flowers visible in the present painting are absent, and there are some changes in proportions.

The present painting constitutes an important and hitherto unknown version of a subject that evidently proved a considerable success with his Milanese patrons. Both Panfilo Nuvolone and Fede Galizia were accustomed to repeating their subjects, evidently basing them on models and sketches kept in their studios. Nuvolone painted not just still lifes but also altarpieces, in which he worked in a style closely associated with the late Mannerism of the Po Valley and Lombardy (and in particular drawing inspiration from the example of Camillo Procaccini): his few but carefully executed still lifes instead represent the avant-garde portion of his œuvre, and the best means, together with the similar works by Fede Galizia, for confirming the close similarities in style and approach to nature in Lombard painting of the early 17th century.

We are grateful to Professor Alberto Cottino for his assistance in cataloguing this painting.