Still Life Of Fish

Nicola Maria Recco (XVII-XVIII)

Still life of fish

Oil on canvas, cm 96.5 X 111

Frame: cm 115 x 128

The still life that we present here is part of the trend developed in Naples during the seventeenth century and perpetrated even in the decades of the following century. Among the various subjects, such as flowers, food, fruits or musical instruments, used and taken over the decades by various representatives of the Neapolitan school there were also paintings with a purely fish theme, set in markets, fisheries or, as in this case along coastal landscapes, thus accentuating even more the realism already inherent in the genre through a plausible and concrete contextualization. In particular, among the many exponents of the genre present in the city of Naples, we find similarities and coincidences, especially from the point of view of the layout and the arrangement of the various elements, with the production Nicola Maria Recco, one of the twelve children of Giuseppe Recco (1634-1695), or one of the most illustrious representatives of the Neapolitan still life. Following in the footsteps of his father, as did Elena, another daughter of Joseph, he specialized in still life but developing a preference for representations of fish, crustaceans and molluscs, which abound in its production and of which the picture described here shows us a wide repertoire: the clams at the bottom right, the bream, the filiform needles, the sea hens with warm and bright colors, the lobster still alive moving on the stones, The small crabs clinging on the rock where a young royal gull, as can be seen from the greyish plumage, squeezes its little prey in the beak. The changing colours of the fish stand out against a dark and cloudy background, along which unfolds a low rocky coast that ends with a steep promontory in the distance.The more nuanced brush strokes and the more approximate and vague contours of the fifth landscape contrast with the minute details of the first floor, enhanced by the clearly evident light on the scales of fish or on the shells of crabs, as it is otherwise denoted, Also with greater intensity, in the author’s other fish-themed still lifes. This particular arrangement, which leaves room for the landscape element, is found in the other works of Nicola Maria Recco, with in the foreground, often placed on the side and not in the center, fish and molluscs and behind them the sea landscape, Rendered with a more generic sharpness than the lenticular details of the still life. Although the information about the painter is lower than that of his father, we know that he worked mostly in Naples and that he knew how to collect the paternal inheritance in the choice of subjects and genre, Although in a more vibrant form through the changing and contrasting colors and light; also the clear choice of an outdoor setting, with glimpses that complete and ampiano the subject, defines his figure of naturamortist thanks to a compositional originality different and distinct from that of the father and coevi colleagues active in the city.