Roman school circa 1640, entourage of the Hartford Master - Lot 38

Roman school circa 1640, entourage of the Hartford Master Still life with flowers, fruit bowl, melon, watermelon, grapes and bird Oil on canvas Bears a monogram AB lower right and a date 1675. 102.5 x 143 cm Provenance : -Sale Versailles, Palais des Congrès, Mes Chapelle Perrin Fromentin, February 13, 1977, no. 19 (attributed to Abraham Brueghel) from the Château de M collection. - In the same private French collection since. Our eminently decorative composition is to be placed in the tradition of the first Italian still-life painters, Caravaggio's followers, such as the Hartford Master Hartford (a conventional name, given by his eponymous eponymous painting in the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hatford), and also Bartolomeo Cavarozzi (1587-1625) or Tommaso Salini (ca. 1575 - before 1625). In front of a background 38 elements stand out against a dark background contrasted by a soft, warm light soft, warm light, reminiscent of the reminiscent of early seventeenth-century tenebrism. On the left, we find the motif of a bowl of pears pears, a symbol of the passing of time, which the symbol of the passing of time, which the Lombard master had defined in his "Fruit Basket" in the Pinacoteca Ambroisienne in Milan (before 1600). Admire the realistic rendering of the velvety peaches of peaches, watermelon pulp and melons in the foreground in the foreground, the very beginnings of the Baroque style. At the time, all still lifes had a religious religious significance; on the right, the grapes grapes refer to the Eucharist, and the pomegranates symbolize the Passion of Christ. The five senses evoked: flowers for the sense of smell, brightly colored fruit for sight and taste, hearing through the presence of a jay, which brings the still-life of a living figure. Touch is suggested by the closed books at the back, which are also vanities of knowledge. Traditionally, the delicate white butterfly represents the fragility of life and the human soul (Psyche). The whole is articulated by various stone entablatures rectangular stone entablatures render a very modern cut by plan with masses arranged separately, linked by oblique lines, reminiscent of still lifes. reminiscent of Cézanne's still lifes and those of the cubist painters. Expertise by Cabinet Turquin