Pier Francesco Cittadini

With Gustavo Rol, Turin. 

The canvas has been relined and is firm and stable. The paint surface has been generally very well retained, and this painting presents a large and very impressive and attractive image. Overall detail is well preserved, especially in the fruit, carpet and sweets at left. There are some old, discolored retouches visible to the naked eye: in the sky seen through the arch at left, in the arch, on the white tablecloth, along the upper and bottom edges, and in the pomegranates upper right. There is a vertical canvas seam that runs from top to bottom through the left side of the red curtain down through the pomegranate at far left on the pewter plate, down through the figs and tablecloth. Under UV light: there is some retouching along the upper and lower parts of the aforementioned canvas seam, and scattered in the red curtain, carpet and tablecloth. There are some very small and minor retouches here and there on fruit. The painting would benefit from having the old discolored retouches re-evaluated and perhaps re-done which should make them less noticeable and would improve the overall appearance. In a carved and gilt wood frame.
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Though Milanese by birth, Pier Francesco Cittadini moved to Bologna as a young artist and then to Rome in the 1640s.  He initially trained with Daniele Crespi, but once in Bologna he studied under Guido Reni.  His oeuvre includes both portraits (see lot 108) and elaborate tabletop still lifes, many with architectural scenes (as in the present painting) or figures in the background (see lot 56).