Attributed to Simone del Tintore

Oscar and Maria Salzer, Los Angeles;
By whom given to the Fresno Metropolitan Museum of Art and Science, 1983 (acc. no. FMM 82.49).

Lawrence, KS, Museum of Art of the University of Kansas, The Salzer Collection.  Trompe l'Oeil and Still Life Paintings:  A Loan Exhibition, 4 October - 1 November 1964, no. 39 (as by Paolo Porpora);
Charlotte, NC, The Mint Museum of Art, The Salzer Collection, Trompe-L'Oeil and Still Life Paintings,  A Loan Exhibition, 14 February - 7 March 1965, cat. no. 39 (as by Paolo Porpora).

Portraits of Objects, Oscar and Maria Salzer Collection of Still Life and Trompe-L'Oeil Paintings, Fresno 1984, cat. no. 38, reproduced (as by Paolo Porpora).

Relined. the paint surface is well preserved with nice impasto in the flowers and fruit. there is a slight degree of thinness in the dark background, the head of the cat, and in some of the leaves and stems. this is not too distracting and these areas still read well. under UV: there are scattered retouches in upper background, on fruit lower right, at lower right corner, in foreground and some scattered on leaves. In an elaborately caved and gilt wood frame with some nicks.
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Although given to the artist Paolo Porpora (1617-1670/80) since the time it was in the Salzer collection, the present painting seems to bear close similarities to the works of Simone del Tintore, an artist whose oeuvre was only first defined in the 1960s.  Trained in Lucca at the painting academy opened there by Pietro Paolini (1603-1681), Simone de Tintore gained favor among his contemporaries as a still-life painter; indeed, works by him featuring fruit, funghi, flowers and other objects are recorded in inventories and other documents from the period. 

In his catalogue, La natura morta italiana:  1560 - 1805 of 1984, Luigi Salerno notes the difficulty in firmly distinguishing Simone's body of work from those of Tommaso Salini (1575-1625) -- an artist of the earlier generation with whom he was confused for many years -- and the Master of the Acquavella Still Life.  Nevertheless, a small group of still lifes has been given to the artist, based on their shared sense of Baroque dynamism and disordered yet harmonious compositions.  Of particular interest in comparison with the present work are Natura morta con funghi e cavolo (Florence, Gregori Collection), which is inscribed on the reverse "Simone del Tintore" and which was the touchstone for the rediscovery of the artist's oeuvre, and Natura morta con cesta di paglia, frutti e vegetali (Milan, Musei civici del Castello Sforzesco).  In the first, the large, almost puffy, mushrooms with their fat stalks and still dirty roots are evocative of the funghi in the present painting; while in the second, we see the same chevron patterned woven basket, with its distinctive exterior handles.