Giuseppe Recco (1634–1695) - Pair Of Still Lifes Featuring Fish And A Turtle

Giuseppe Recco (Naples 1634 – Alicante 1695)

A pair of still lifes featuring fish, a turtle, squid, and fishing gear

Oil on canvas

Dimensions without frame: 78 × 94 (cm)
Dimensions with frame: 95 × 110 (cm)

Re-stretched on canvas, with contemporary octagonal frames in the 17th-century style

In very good condition.


Giuseppe Recco (1634–1695) is one of the greatest still-life painters of the Neapolitan Baroque, renowned for his grandiose and hyperrealistic compositions, particularly his spectacular depictions of fish, crustaceans, and shells with vibrant textures and dramatic lighting effects.

Born in Naples into a family of artists specializing in still life, Giuseppe was the son of Giacomo Recco (a pioneer of the genre in Naples). He first trained in the family studio, then perfected his technique under Paolo Porpora

Within the Recco dynasty, which dominated still-life painting throughout the 17th century, Giuseppe represents the absolute pinnacle. He surpassed his predecessors with his theatrical sense of staging, his complex compositions, and his virtuoso rendering of materials: shimmering scales, wet glints, and translucent flesh. His children, Nicolò and especially Elena Recco, carried on the tradition, but neither matched his fame. The Recco family embodies the rise of Neapolitan still life, evolving from bouquets of flowers to sumptuous kitchen scenes and marine subjects highly sought after by aristocratic patrons.

Recco excelled at opulent still lifes, kitchen scenes, and especially fish on rocky shores or beaches, which he depicted with intense naturalism and an almost Baroque grandeur.

His reputation earned him prestigious commissions; he worked for Grand Duke Ferdinand de’ Medici of Tuscany, for illustrious Neapolitan families, and above all for the Spanish court

Today, Giuseppe Recco’s works are housed in prestigious collections: the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museo di Capodimonte and the Palazzo Montecitorio in Naples and Rome, the Prado in Madrid, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Brest, the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, the National Gallery of Australia (a work created in collaboration with Giordano), the National Gallery of Finland in Helsinki, as well as in numerous private collections and museums in Italy, Spain, and Malta.

These works confirm his status as the undisputed master of 17th-century European still life. Recco remains a fascinating artist due to his ability to transform everyday subjects into sumptuous spectacles, where Caravaggesque light reveals the ephemeral and sensory beauty of the world.