Francesco Lavagna (Naples, 1684 - 1724), Nature Morte Aux Fleurs Dans Un Jardin (2)

Still Life with Flowers in a Garden (2), Francesco Lavagna (Naples, 1684 - 1724)
Francesco Lavagna (Naples, 1684 - 1724) (LINK)

Still Life with Flower Arrangements in a Garden (2)

Neapolitan school of the first half of the 18th century

oil on canvas
cm 102 x 75 - with frame cm 116 x 88

Work with expertise by Prof. Emilio Negro

The valuable painting, depicting a sumptuous composition of flowers scenographically arranged in an elegant outdoor garden, is the work of Francesco Lavagna (Naples, 1684 - 1724), one of the best known protagonists of Neapolitan still life painting in the early 18th century, whose training, in analogy with Gaspare Lopez, took place in the atelier of Andrea Belvedere.

This is an excellent example of the aesthetic level and expressive qualities achieved by the painter, capable of vividly realising complex compositions with a great decorative effect and a characteristic rocaille taste, also displaying an excellent chromatic sensitivity, enhanced by the skilful play of glazing and thickness of the material, but above all by a luminosity that radiates unhindered and unwavering.

Appreciated and sought after, both by the antiques market and by critics, the Neapolitan still life was in demand by great collectors in the past, destined to enrich the most beautiful palaces in and around Naples. And Francesco Lavagna was much loved by such patrons, with his large canvases, never banal and endowed with a descriptive capacity of considerable visual impact.

The concept of devising such a complex composition, played out on a concatenation of flower vases of different shapes and sizes, but united by the same framing, immediately suggests an overall project, which the artist must have probably conceived by scrutinising the spaces for which it was intended.

The compositional choices are typical of the repertoire of the painter, who loved to realise his floral compositions, with different varieties of botanical species, set en plein air within gardens; the bouquets of flowers are harmoniously multi-coloured, placed inside vases or baskets arranged with apparent randomness and disorder.

It is also worth noting how this type of posed natures composed mainly of fresh flowers often took on a symbolic meaning, i.e. implying a sort of metaphor for the transience of life and beauty, a transience analogous to fresh flowers that shine in the morning but have already faded by sunset.

The historiographer Bernardo De Dominici, in his 'Lives of Neapolitan painters, sculptors and architects' of 1742, extols Lavagna's skills, emphasising the talent of our painter who, compared to that of his master, exhibits a greater freedom of execution. This aspect finds precise correspondence in the canvas, in which the stylistic modernity allows a connection with late 18th century florists, with strong references to Francesco Guardi.

The painting is in excellent condition, accompanied by an elegant frame of the period, in perfect Rococo style, in carved and gilded wood.


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