Still Life Of Flowers With Watermelon And Birds

Angelo Zani, also known as "Monogrammista A.V." (active in the first half of the 18th century, Pisa)

Still life of flowers with watermelon and birds

Oil on canvas, cm 68 x 56

With frame, cm 86 x 74

Bibliography:

G. Bocchi-U. Bocchi, Monogrammista A.V. (?), in Naturaliter. New contribution to still life in northern Italy and Tuscany from the seventeenth to the eighteenth century, edited by J. Bocchi and W. Bocchi, Calenzano (Florence) 1998, p. 359-365.

The unmistakable stylistic trait of the present couple, made up of colorful and pasty lines, allow us to bring back the paintings to the hand of the painter Angelo Zani, also known as "Monogrammista A.V." refined still life painter active in the early eighteenth century.

Artist whose historical sources are only now giving back its greatness signed two oval still lifes appeared from Sotheby’s in London on 29 October 2009 with the inscription "Angelo Zani di Pisa Fecit". Originally from Pisa but probably also active in Emilia, corresponds to the author of the paintings that in 1998 Gianluca and Ulisse Bocchi grouped under the pseudonym of Monogrammista AV.

Numerous paintings appeared in Emilia and Lombardy in the first half of the eighteenth century, as evidenced by the style and layout of the works set on some constants, such as the flower pot seen outdoors, which sometimes appears isolated, but more often associated with fruit or pets or birds, as is the case of our picture. Here, a small black and white bird accompanies a flower pot, while a larger white bird overlooks a basket, also frequently present in the artist’s repertoire, similar to the realistic bundle of asparagus. The floral compositions that have the same characteristic tones of the artist’s hand, such as the pasty consistency of the colors in filling the flower petals and the purely decorative taste, are found in the Vase with flowers outdoors in Private Collection, as well as in the Still Life with a vase of flowers and birds on a background of landscape (Finarte, Rome), where you can observe the same bird of the present composition. The variety of flowers is also concentrated on the same types, so you can highlight tulips, gerberas and roses. His production is an indication of the popularity of a pictorial genre set on a pleasant decorativity, which is often observed in the villas of the nobility of the time.