Master Paintings and Sculpture Part II
Master Paintings and Sculpture Part II
Property from the Grasset Collection
Franz Godin, called Francesco Codino
Still life of grapes, pears, and a peach in a porcelain bowl, with a blue tit on a vine branch, together with a mouse, sweetmeats, two snipes, and songbirds
Auction Closed
January 27, 09:38 PM GMT
Estimate
15,000 - 20,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Property from the Grasset Collection
Franz Godin, called Francesco Codino
active in Germany and Lombardy circa 1621 - after 1624
Still life of grapes, pears, and a peach in a porcelain bowl, with a blue tit on a vine branch, together with a mouse, sweetmeats, two snipes, and songbirds
oil on beechwood panel
panel: 15⅛ by 21⅜ in.; 38.4 by 54.3 cm.
framed: 21¼ by 27⅛ in.; 54 by 68.9 cm.
With Leger Galleries, 1966 (as Peter Binoit);
From whom acquired for the Grasset collection, April 1972.
G. Bott, Die Stillebenmaler Soreau, Binoit, Codino und Marrell in Hanau und Frankfurt 1600 - 1650, Hanau 2001, p. 222, cat. no. WV.C.29, reproduced (as Francesco Codino);
F.G. Meijer, Brueghel to Canaletto, European Masterpieces from the Grasset Collection, exhibition catalogue, San Diego 2016, p. 21, reproduced in color;
S. Thomas, A Feast for the Eyes, European Masterpieces from the Grasset Collection, exhibition catalogue, Saint Petersburg, Florida 2019, p. 38, cat. no. 13, reproduced in color.
Saint Petersburg, Florida, Museum of Fine Arts, A Feast for the Eyes, European Masterpieces from the Grasset Collection, 23 March – 2 September 2019, no. 13 (as Peter Binoit).
Francesco Codino (also called Franz Godin) was a German-born Italian painter, active both in Hanau and Frankfurt and Lombardy. Codino trained in the ateliers of – and may have been related to – both Daniel Soreau in Hanau and Peter Binoit in Cologne before emigrating to northern Italy circa 1620. Codino's oeuvre, as established by Stefano Bottari, consists of fewer than thirty known works.1 Until recently attributed to Peter Binoit, this enchanting still life is now considered to be the work of Codino: an opinion suggested by Gerhard Bott in 2001 and again by Fred Meijer in 2016.2 Though works by Binoit and Codino are often difficult to distinguish, this painting's close relation to another work by Codino supports the attribution. That panel, of the same dimensions and sold at Christie's London in 2005, features the identical central elements as the present work and appears to vary only in the peripheral still life elements.3 Perhaps to meet the growing demand for his works, painting multiple versions of compositions seems to have been integral to Codino's artistic practice.
The present still life's carefully-balanced composition features a generous harvest of fresh fruit and local game, perhaps connoting the bounty of summer. Bunches of purple and green grapes, peaches, and pears are piled high in a stylish Chinese export porcelain bowl at the work's center. A pair of dead snipes situated at left is balanced by a cluster of dead songbirds at right. Between them, a mouse nibbles on sugared Italian candies, known as "confetti di Pistoia." A motif often employed as a symbol of destruction, the mouse is here juxtaposed with the blue tit, traditionally seen as a symbol of good fortune, perched on a grape stem above. In contrast with extravagant displays of exotic goods typical of contemporary still lifes, in this work Codino celebrates simpler luxuries, focusing on local fruits and game alongside the imported porcelain dish and indulgent sweetmeats.
We are grateful to Fred G. Meijer for endorsing the present attribution on the basis of digital photographs.
1 See S. Bottari, "Nature morte della scuola di Francoforte: J. Soreau, Peter Binoit e Francesco Codino," in Pantheon 22, no. 11 (1964), pp. 107-114.
2 See Bott 2001, p. 222 and Meijer 2016, p. 21.
3 Sold Christie's, London, 8 July 2005, lot 64.