Giovanni Pratesi: The Florentine Eye
Giovanni Pratesi: The Florentine Eye
Mario Nuzzi, called Mario de' Fiori and Roman painter
An allegory of Vigilance and flower still life
Auction Closed
March 22, 07:15 PM GMT
Estimate
15,000 - 20,000 EUR
Lot Details
Description
Mario Nuzzi, called Mario de' Fiori and Roman painter
An allegory of Vigilance and flower still life
oil on canvas, in its original carved and giltwood frame of twisted columns embellished with vine leaves, flowers and a wheel on each corner
unframed: 99.5 x 138 cm; 39⅛ x 54⅜ in.
framed: 126 x 163 cm.; 49⅝ x 64⅛ in.
With Galerie Pardo, Paris, by 1989;
Acquired by the present owner in 1995.
G. Bocchi and U. Bocchi, Still Life Painters in Rome: Italian Artists 1630-1750, Verona 2005, pp. 122 and 126, reproduced in colour fig. MN.56 (as Mario Nuzzi and Raffaello Vanni);
F. Solinas in Flora Romana – Fiori e Cultura nell'arte di Mario de' Fiori (1603–1673), F. Solinas (ed.), exh. cat., Tivoli 2010, pp. 153–54, no. 26, reproduced in colour (as Mario Nuzzi and Roman painter);
G. Cantelli, Francesco Furini e i furiniani, Pontedera 2010, p. 50, reproduced fig. 40 (as Leonardo Ferroni).
Next to a beautifully observed still life of tulips, forget-me-nots, irises and other flowers, a rooster is depicted turned towards a female figure dressed in white, holding an open book in her right hand and an oil lantern in her left. This is none other than an allegory of vigilance, meticulously described in Cesare Ripa's Iconologia. The rooster, oil lamp and open book are all traditionally associated with watchfulness.1
Dating to the mid-17th century, this work is a collaboration between two artists: Mario Nuzzi, who painted the still life and the rooster, and an anonymous Roman painter who executed the female figure. Possibly the prime version of this composition by Mario Nuzzi and Sienese painter Raffaello Vanni, was sold in Rome in 1995.2 It was evidently a popular design as a copy of lesser quality signed Rémy is in the Musée des Beaux Arts, Orléans.3
Of note is the period frame of the work, bearing carved wheels on each corner, symbols of the Sienese family Ugurgieri della Berardenga for whom this work was originally painted.4
1 C. Ripa, Iconologia, Venice 1645, p. 669.
2 Anonymous sale, Rome, Christie's, 21 November 1995, lot 248; http://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/scheda/opera/97429/Autore%20non%20indica
3 M. O'Neill, Les Peintures de l'école française des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Nantes 1981, pp. 120–21, reproduced fig. 145.
4 Solinas in Tivoli 2010, pp. 153–54.
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