Still Life With Fish & Shellfish. Giuseppe Recco (1634-1695)

Oil on canvas Presented in a beautiful “Cassetta” frame Total dimensions: 60 x 80 cm. The canvas alone: 36 x 54 cm On our painting and always on a black background, the painter shows us with great virtuosity fish and crustaceans from the Gulf of Naples. Bug, Crenilabrum, Oblade, Mackerel and the Garfish with its long beak and metallic appearance. Lobster, spider crab and sea urchin complete the collection. Giuseppe Recco Naples 1634 - Alicante 1695 He is part of a family of artists specialized in still lifes. His father Giacomo was among the Neapolitan “fioranti” (flower painters) and his uncle Giovanni Battista represents the link between the first and second generation of still life painters, as well as the relationship between Neapolitan and Spanish still life; among the many children of Giuseppe Recco, we have Elena and Nicola Maria who were also painters, but of lesser stature than their predecessors. Giuseppe's beginnings grew out of the experiences of his father and uncle, while renewing the family formulas of 'flowers', 'fish' and 'cooking'. Recco remained in the wake of the great Neapolitan naturalist tradition, but was also interested in the art of Paolo Porpora; he did not adhere, except at the end of his career, to the excesses of baroque decoration, preferring to direct his own attention to the lucid and refined analysis of surfaces and lights. According to De Dominici (1742-1745), he went to Lombardy at the age of twenty; From this information, part of the criticism has detected in Recco the existence of an early influence on the part of the Bergamo artist Evaristo Baschenis (1607-1677), undoubtedly transmitted by Bartolomeo Bettera (around 1639-1688 ). This influence was never exerted in all probability, but if it did play a role, it should not leave us to postulate a trip to Lombardy by Recco, but only thematic references extrinsic to the production of Baschenis, references linked above the market for mature works by the Neapolitan artist. Since the beginning of the painter's activity, we have owned many works dated and monogrammed (or signed in full) which allow us to closely follow the evolution of an artistic journey which, all things considered, does not present excessive philological problems. The Bodégon with a black and musical instruments which dates from 1659 (Madrid, coll. Medinacelli) represents the evolution and transition from the style of Giacomo Recco to that of Giovanni Battista; the Bodégon with copper objects and fish from the Moret collection dates from 1664; it was wrongly attributed to Giovanni Battista by Bottari in 1961; we then have: from 1672, the large Still Life with Fruits, Flowers and Birds, unfinished, in the reserves of the Museo di Capodimonte; of 1674, the Fishes of the coll. Gaudioso in Catania; from 1675, the Cuisine of the Galleria dell'Accademia in Vienna, still dependent on the examples of Giovanni Battista Recco, and from 1691, the Fishes of the Uffizi in Florence. Very good state of conservation. Sold with a certificate.