1 / 1

download image
This image is in the public domain. You can copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes. Learn more about our image policies.

Golden light from the upper left illuminates an assortment of vegetables, fish, and live and dead animals arranged among kitchen pots, pans, and bowls in this vertical still life painting. The animals and objects are displayed on three levels, each of which takes up about a third of the composition. Starting at the top: the body of a light brown hare lies over the front edge of a stone ledge, which is draped with a rumpled forest-green, gold-edged cloth. A large golden-brown fowl hangs upside down, its feet tied and the string looped over a nail on the dark brown wall behind the still life. The fowl’s cream-white wings are outstretched, and its head rests along the hare’s body. Five birds with feathers of golden yellow, white, black, and apple red lie in a pile to the left of the hare. A live peacock stands on the green cloth to the right, looking down at the other animals. Its long, caramel-brown tail is closed and is dotted with eyes that look like shiny black buttons. The next level down is made up of a short barrel next to a small wooden stool or table. A butterscotch-brown rooster is perched on the barrel among red onions. A copper bowl overflowing with dark green artichokes and leafy greens sits on the stool to our right. The bottom zone has objects and animals across the ginger-brown floor. To our left, a chicken or rooster stands facing away from us as it looks to our right toward a tall, sealed jug and two dark brown pots. Just behind the pots a gleaming copper bowl is propped up at an angle so we see coral-pink fish inside. The bowl leans against a lustrous brass basin and jug with a duck standing in front of it. A radish, lemon, a couple more fish, and two lobsters lie on the floor or are tucked between the pans and bowls. The space opens onto another dimly lit room beyond the still life, in the upper right corner of the painting. In that room, a woman wearing a long skirt and a white cap is backlit against a rectangular window opening filled with pale blue sky. A spark of orange to our left could be a fire on a raised hearth or stove.

Anton Maria Vassallo

The Larder, probably c. 1650/1660

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 229.2 x 163.2 cm (90 1/4 x 64 1/4 in.)

framed: 257.8 x 192.4 x 10.1 cm (101 1/2 x 75 3/4 x 4 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1961.9.91

Artists / Makers

Anton Maria Vassallo (painter) Genoese, c. 1620 - 1664/1672

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Provenance

Cardinal Joseph Fesch [1763-1839], Rome, after 1815;[1] (his sale, Palazzo Ricci, Rome, 17 March 1845 and days following, no. 1009, as by Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione); purchased by (Alessandro Aducci).[2] Reginald Cholmondely, Condover Hall, by 1876;[3] (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 6 March 1897, no. 66, as by Velázquez); bought by Martin Colnaghi for Sir John Charles Robinson [1824-1913], London,[4] buying for Sir Francis Cook, 1st Bt. [1817-1901], Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey; by inheritance to his son, Sir Frederick Lucas Cook, 2nd Bt. [1844-1920], Doughty House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Herbert Frederick Cook, 3d Bt. [1868-1939], Doughty House;[5] by inheritance to his son, Sir Francis Ferdinand Maurice Cook, 4th Bt. [1907-1978], Doughty House, and Cothay Manor, Somerset; sold February 1948 to (Gualtiero Volterra, London) for (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence);[6] purchased March 1949 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[7] gift 1961 to NGA.

[1] Cardinal Fesch was exiled from Paris in 1815. In the 1845 sale catalogue, paintings brought to Rome at that time are marked with an asterisk. The present painting is not so marked, indicating that it was among those acquired by the cardinal after 1815. It appears in the posthumous catalogue, Catalogue des tableaux composant la galerie de feu s.e. le Cardinal Fesch, Rome, 1841: 111, no. 2733 (as by Castiglione).

[2] Information from the annotated copy of the sale catalogue held by the Getty Provenance Index. Martha Hepworth has identified Aducci as a dealer (letter of 15 March 1993, NGA curatorial files).

[3] Exhibited at Wrexham in 1876 as from his collection.

[4] The annotated sale catalogue held by the Getty Provenance Index lists the purchaser as "M. Colnaghi for (Sir C. Robinson)." As Martha Hepworth pointed out, Robinson was Cook's principal adviser and bought most of Cook's paintings for him (letter cited in note 2).

[5] Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, London, 1903: 26, no. 29 (ascribed to Velázquez); Maurice W. Brockwell, A Catalogue of the Paintings in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook, Bt., London, 1915: 3:143, no. 504 (as Spanish seventeenth-century); Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, in the Collection of Sir Herbert Cook, Bart., London, 1932: 75, no. 504 (as by Castiglione).

[6] See copies of correspondence in NGA curatorial files, from the Cook Collection Archive in care of John Somerville, England. Volterra was Contini Bonacossi's agent in London.

[7] The Kress Foundation made an offer to Contini Bonacossi on 4 March 1949 for a group of twenty-one paintings, including the Vassallo, identified at the time as Still Life attributed to Velazquez; the offer was accepted on 10 March 1949 (see copies of correspondence in NGA curatorial files, see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2220).

Associated Names

Aducci, Alessandro
Cholmondely, Reginald
Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd.
Colnaghi, Martin H.
Contini Bonacossi, Alessandro, Count
Cook, 1st bt., Francis, Sir
Cook, 2nd bt., Frederick Lucas, Sir
Cook, 3rd bt., Herbert Frederick, Sir
Cook, 4th bt., Francis Ferdinand Maurice, Sir
Fesch, Joseph, Cardinal
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Robinson, John Charles, Sir
Sale, Rome
Volterra, Gualtiero

Exhibition History

1876: Wrexham, Wales, 1876, no. 2, as by Velasquez.

1879: Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1879, no. 162, as by Velasquez.

1901: Guildhall, London, 1901, no. 133, as by Velasquez.

1913: Exhibition of Spanish Old Masters in Support of National Gallery Funds and for the Benefit of the Sociedad de Amigos del Arte Espagnola, Grafton Galleries, London, 1913-1914, no. 6, as 17th Century Spanish, possibly Francisco Herrera the Younger.

1983: Italian Still Life Painting from Three Centuries, National Academy of Design, New York; Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa; Dayton Art Institute, 1983, no. 35 (cat. by John Spike).

1992: Kunst in der Republik Genua 1528-1815, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, 1992, no. 68, repro.

Technical Summary

The support is a loose, uneven plain-weave fabric, prepared with a warm red-brown ground. The background was sketched in first with reserves left for the still-life composition, which was worked up in layers wet-over-dry, and with scumbles and glazes, although some passages were painted wet-into-wet. The paint consistency varies from liquid and thin to moderate impasto in the highlights. X-radiographs reveal that the design was executed precisely with no artist's changes.

The tacking margins have been removed, but cusping is visible on all four edges. There are small losses scattered throughout and some minor abrasion, which is concentrated in the lower quarter. Discolored varnish was removed and the painting was restored by Mario Modestini in 1948.

Bibliography

1883: Curtis, C. B. Velázquez and Murillo. London, 1883: 36, no. 81, as related to but not securely attributable to Velázquez

1906: Robinson, J. C. "The Bodegones and Early Works of Velazquez." The Burlington Magazine 10 (1906): 178, as by Velázquez.

1907: Robinson, J. C. "The Bodegones and Early Works of Velazquez II." The Burlington Magazine 11 (1907): 39-40, repro., as by Velázquez.

1913: Borenius, Tancred. "Two Still-Life Pictures by Murillo (?)" The Burlington Magazine 24 (1913): 74, repro., as possibly by Murillo.

1915: Mayer, August. "Über einige Velazquez zu unrecht zugeschriebene Stilleben und Genrebilder." Monatshefte für Kunstwissenschaft 9 (1915): 126, pl. 35, fig. 3, as by Mariano Nani.

1926: Bodkin, T. "New Attributions to Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione." The Burlington Magazine 48 (1926): 264-265, pl. II-c, as by Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione.

1950: Longhi, Roberto. "Un momento importante nella storia della 'natura morte." Paragone 1 (1950): 39.

1952: Sterling, Charles. La nature morte de l'antiquité à nos jours. Paris, 1952: 56.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 225, repro.

1962: De Logu, Giuseppe. La natura morta italiana. Bergamo, 1962: 48, 171, fig. 106.

1964: Ottani, Anna. La natura morta italiana. Exh. cat. Palazzo Reale, Naples, 1964: 108.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 134.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 121, repro.

1970: Castelnovi, Gian Vittorio. "La pittura nella prima metà del Seicento dall'Ansaldo a Orazio De Ferrari." In Colette Bozzo Dufour (vol. 1) and Gianfranco Bruno (vol. 2), eds. La pittura a Genova e in Liguria. 2 vols. Genoa, 1970-1971: 2(1971):165.

1970: Torriti, Piero. "La natura morta e il paesaggio." In Colette Bozzo Dufour (vol. 1) and Gianfranco Bruno (vol. 2), eds. La pittura a Genova e in Liguria. 2 vols. Genoa, 1970-1971: 2(1971):336-338, fig. 220 (2nd ed. 1987).

1972: Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972: 209.

1973: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI-XVIII Century. London, 1973: 93, fig. 170.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 360, repro.

1979: Longhi, Roberto. "Progetti di lavoro di Roberto Longhi: Genova pittrice." Paragone 349 (1979): 18, pl. 95.

1979: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:516-517; 2:pl. 361.

1984: Salerno, Luigi. La natura morta italiana 1560-1805/Still Life Painting in Italy. Rome, 1984: 148.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 418, repro.

1989: Cottino, Alberto. "Anton Maria Vassallo." In La natura morta in Italia 1989: 1:134, fig. 137.

1989: Griseri, Adreina. "La natura morta in Liguria." In La natura morta in Italia 1989: 1:114.

1989: Krawietz, Clara. "Un itinierario nell'opera pittorica di Anton Maria Vassallo." Arte Documento 3 (1989): 190, fig. 19.

1989: Newcome, Mary. "Anton Maria Vassallo." In La pittura in Italia. Edited by Mina Gregori and Erich Schleier. 2 vols. Rev. ed. Milan, 1989: 2:915.

1990: Gavazza, Ezia. La pittura in Liguria. Il secondo seicento. Genoa, 1990: color pl. 48, 275, 436.

1992: Bocchi, Gianluca, and Ulisse Bocchi, eds. Naturalia. Nature morte in collezioni pubbliche e private. Exh. cat. Galleria d'Orlane, Casalmaggiore, Turin, 1992: 78.

1992: Lodi, Letizia. "Antonio Maria Vassallo." In Gavazza, Ezia, and Giovanni Rotondi Terminiello, eds. Genova nell'Età barocca. Exh. cat. Palazzo Spinola; Palazzo Reale, Genoa. Bologna, 1992: 282.

1996: De Grazia, Diane, and Eric Garberson, with Edgar Peters Bowron, Peter M. Lukehart, and Mitchell Merling. Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 323-327, color repro. 325.