CRISTOFORO MUNARI | STILL LIFE WITH PORCELAIN CUPS AND A FAÇON DE VENISE GLASS ON A SALVER, WITH A GLASS WINE EWER, PEELED LEMON AND APRICOTS, BEFORE A PLINTH WITH A VIOLONCELLO, RECORDER, AND MUSICAL SCORES

D. Lorenzo Pellerano;

His sale, Buenos Aires, J.C. Naon, 27 August 1938, lot 350;

Anonymous sale (‘The Property of a Private Collector’), New York, Christie’s, 25 January 2002, lot 41, for $120,000.

"There are so many different influences vying for competition in this beautiful picture. The Dutch still-life tradition permeates the scene, but so too does the north Italian interest in portraying contrasting textures. The overriding source, for me, is the Bergamasque tradition of celebrating the beauty of musical instruments. How fitting then that the dominant feature of the painting should be a 'cello, which bears down on the more intricate elements below it."

Edoardo Roberti

This luxuriant still life is typical of Munari’s work in its realistic treatment of materials, juxtaposition of surface textures and the observation of fine detail. The present work exemplifies Munari’s facility for depicting the subtle effect of light on a variety of objects, from the transparency of the ewer and intricate wineglass filled with liquid, to the reflection of the delicate porcelain on the metallic salver, to the flesh of the whole and partial fruits, and finally to the solid carving of the wooden musical instruments. The same cello and recorder may be found in the Still life with musical instruments in the Uffizi, Florence,¹ suggesting that the artist may have owned these himself. Likewise the cup atop the upturned saucer recurs in two other paintings,² and the ewer of wine appears in another work, in a private collection, Bergamo.³ Munari’s concern for the vivid interplay of these richly-coloured, exotic articles, is suggestive of the influence of the great Dutch still-life painter Jan Davidsz. de Heem and the German artist Christian Berentz, who was also working in Rome in the early 18th century.

Munari began his career in his native city as a protégé of Rinaldo d’Este, Duke of Modena, before travelling to Rome in 1703, where he found patronage among the leading aristocratic families. By 1706 he had moved to Florence and there completed commissions for Ferdinand de' Medici, Cosimo III, and Cardinal Francesco Maria de’ Medici.

We are grateful to Dott.ssa Francesca Baldassari for endorsing the attribution to Munari on the basis of a digital image.

¹ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cristoforo_Munari_-_Still-

Life_with_Musical_Instruments_-_WGA16334.jpg

² One in a private collection, Modena, the other in the Museo Civico di Palazzo Bianco, Genoa: http://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/entry/work/89544/Munari%20Cristoforo%2C%

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³ http://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/entry/work/89549/Munari%20Cristoforo%2C%

20Natura%20morta%20con%20vassoio%20di%20cristalli%2C%20strumenti%20musi

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