Gaspare Lopez, Attrib. Still Life With Fountain, Obelisk And Cascade Of Flowers, Naples, 1720

Gaspare Lopez, attrib.

Still Life with Fountain, Obelisk and Cascade of Flowers, Naples, 1720

Oil on canvas, 36 × 45.2 cm (48 × 57.4 cm with frame)

Giltwood frame of later date

On the reverse, handwritten label: “H. C. Veit – 1A Chesham Mews SW1 – 16 June 1957”

This painting belongs to a pair of Neapolitan still lifes from the early eighteenth century and fits naturally within the pictorial language of Gaspare Lopez, echoing his preference for garden settings and abundant, decorative floral constructions. The composition is organised around a fountain with a putto, from which a slender stream of water descends, rendered with light, silvery touches—an element Lopez frequently employed to animate his scenes. To the left, an obelisk introduces an elegant vertical accent, typical of his more elaborate imaginary gardens.

The cascade of flowers—roses, tulips, peonies, carnations and the characteristic blue climbing bellflowers—unfolds with fluidity, revealing the brilliant decorative sensibility that earned the painter the nickname “Gaspare dei fiori” already during his lifetime. The palette is bright, luminous and joyful, expressing the vitality of the Neapolitan tradition in the first half of the 18th century.

In the background, the garden with cypresses, terraces and stone structures shows close affinities with the still lifes preserved at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (inv. GG 1658, 1662, 1664), all attributed to Lopez. Although smaller in scale, the present painting shares with those works the horizontal layout, open bright skies and the construction of floral masses in dialogue with architecture—elements that convincingly support the attribution.

Lopez’s training under Andrea Belvedere, the leading late-Baroque Neapolitan painter of flowers, is reflected in the careful botanical rendering and fresh chromatic range, which the artist later developed in a personal manner during his activity between Naples, Rome and Florence.

Condition: old varnish and regular craquelure.