Pair Of Valuable 17th Century Still Lifes.

Pair of still lifes painted in oil on canvas with fine quality of execution, depicting gilded vases with classical grotesque sculptural decorations and containing rich floral compositions.

The paintings are attributable to the painter Francesco Caldei known as Francesco Mantovano (Mantua, 1584 - Venice, 1674).
The measurements of the paintings include the frames, not contemporary, are 120x 94cm.

Mantovano was a painter of probable Mantuan origin but of Venetian training, whose pictorial corpus was recomposed only recently, in 1998, with the recovery of four of his works from the deposits of the Accademia dei Concordi in Rovigo, historically documented paintings. From that first nucleus emerged clearly the image of a specialist in flower painting, an artist characterized by the habit of repeating his own modules with the propensity to represent ancient vases with masks and historiated vases with reclining or lying figures. The obligatory presence of the Mantuan in Rome cannot be defined with precision in time but it is a fact that must absolutely be taken into account due to the proximity of his compositions with the repertoire of Mario Nuzzi known as Mario dei Fiori and other artists active in Rome.

We enclose with the sale a historical certificate of authenticity.