Prospero Mallerini

The canvas has been relined. The paint surface is secure, clean and in good condition. The varnish has discoloured slightly over the darker areas. Inspection under UV light reveals some very minor scattered retouching and strengthening work, most notably to the green rope around the base of the cross, and some minor old repaired damages, two upper right one 6 by 4 and the other L shaped 5 by 7, two lower right, the largest of which is 2 by 3 cm. Offered in a wooden patterned gold and black paint frame in fair condition with some knocks.
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Prospero Mallerini was recorded as an architect and painter and although a document relating to his earliest known work, dated 1794, refers to him as "un pittore di Martinengo [Bergamo]" he seems to have been active predominantly in Rome.¹  His career can be traced through a number of surviving signed and dated works, the last of which, prior to the discovery of the present work, was thought to be his 1829 altarpiece of San Giovanni Battista della Concezione in the church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Rome.²  The discovery of this still life is od further importance because whilst Mallerini often inserted naturalistic still life elements, such as an open book, into his religious altarpieces only one other 'pure' still life by the artist was previously known.³

Both the aforementioned New York still life and the present picture depict a trompe l'oeil space for personal devotion.  The former depicts a makeshift cupboard of a private chapel with the curtain drawn back to reveal the contents and the present picture shows a portable altar and other assorted devotional apparatus including a rosary, a bell and some books.  Whilst the ostensible subject matter of the painting is devotional the actual focus of both images seems to be Mallerini's virtuoso handling of the paint and his precise ability to depict naturalistic still life elements.  The polished wood of the altar gleams in contrast to the paler matt wood of the planks behind, the pages of the books on the left are furled with age and usage and the rosary hangs from the olive branch with realistic weightiness.

1. L.  Barroero, 'Prospero Mallerini: appunti per un pittore sconosciuto', in Prospettiva, nos. 33-36, 1983-4, pp. 334-39.
2. Ibid. 
3. Sold New York, Sotheby's, 25 January 2008, lot 201 for $85,000.