(Rovigo, active in the second half of the 17th century)
Tulips, roses, chrysanthemums and other flowers in an urn, in a basket and on a stone ledge, a landscape beyond; and
Tulips, roses and other flowers in an urn next to a garland of mixed flowers on a stone ledge, a landscape beyond,
oil on canvas, each 96.5 x 128.5 cm, framed, a pair (2)

Provenance:
Private European collection

We are grateful to Gianluca Bocchi for confirming the attribution and for his help in cataloguing this lot.

Elisabetta Marchioni’s origins remain uncertain and the biographer Francesco Bartoli is the principal source of her career (see F. Bartoli, Le pitture, sculture ed architetture della città di Rovigo. Con indici ed illustrazioni, Venice 1792). He recalls that she was a ‘celebre Pittrice di Fiori’ [‘celebrated Painter of Flowers’] who had a ‘grazioso pennello […] e cercò d’imitar la natura’ [‘graceful brush and sought to imitate nature’] (see op. cit. Bertoli, 1792, p. 318).

It appears that she worked almost exclusively in Rovigo where she lived as a member of the upper bourgeoisie. She was the wife of Sante Marchioni a goldsmith who would have introduced her to connections with the local nobility. Her production was focused on the depiction of floral subjects: ‘bellissimi vasi si veggono da essa dipinti, sopraquali s’innalzano piramidi de’ suoi fiori con tanta varietà, che propriamente allettano’ [‘we see she painted beautiful vases out of which rise pyramids of flowers of such great variety, that they truly give pleasure’] (see op. cit. Bertoli, 1792, p. 319). Her signature style is clearly recognisable lending the process of attribution clarity, even before more complex compositions, in which she introduced baskets of fruit, as well as various birds and little animals.

The two paintings here under discussion are typical of her work in Rovigo, they are exemplary of the series of paintings that Bartoli recalls in the houses of his city (see op. cit. Bertoli, 1792, p. 318). Although, the artist continuously painted variations of flowers, it is still impossible to identify partial or total repetitions of any single composition.

However, the repetition of models was a frequent phenomenon in seventeenth century art production, that reoccurs among artists that were called upon to supply many paintings of similar size and subject. We can without doubt confirm Bartoli’s observations, when he recalls the great variety of her flowers, in praising her talent and great versatility in their execution.