Still Life With Flowers - Signed Margherita Caffi (1648 - 1710)

Still Life With Flowers - Signed Margherita Caffi (Milan 1648 - Milan 1710) The elegant painting that we propose is signed by the Milanese artist Margherita Caffi, a 17th century painter, which was rather rare at that time. It presents a large sample of flowers, preserved in a decorated majolica vase. The peculiarity of the work lies in the signature, placed at the bottom right "Marg. Caf. F (ecit)". The material, animated by a bright light, acquires a particular sweetness, delicate and virtuous in the definition of the reflections of the vase and in the transparency of the petals. The painting, which vibrates the surface, is virulent, thanks to sharp strokes and refined color choices based on the use of intense light effects. All encased in an early Rococo composition, with a sumptuous decorative effect. The composition, as in the best Caravaggesque tradition, is illuminated by a strong light coming from the left Typical of the successful production of Caffi, the painting proposed here compares easily to the corpus collected in the volume of Ulisse and Gianluca Bocchi (Naturaliter Nuovi contribtia natura morta in Italia sentrale e Toscana tra XVII e XVIII secolo, Casalmaggiore 1998, pp. 78-101). Links can be established with some paintings that appeared on the international market, including, for example, unsigned Still Life with Flowers, sold by Sotheby's (Milan, 19 October 2010), whose similarities are remarkable. Born in Cremona in 1647, Margherita Caffi nevertheless mainly worked in Lombardy and Tuscany, refining her training in Vincenzo Volò's studio, where Giuseppe Vicenzino also studied. She was active in Tuscany, where she lived and lived in the seventies of the seventeenth century under the patronage of the Medici - darling of the Grand Duchess Vittoria Della Rovere, wife of Ferdinand II (his paintings were kept at the Palatina Gallery and the presence of his works is included in the ancient inventories of the Poggio villa in Caiano and the Pitti Palace gallery, among his clients were the archdukes of Tyrol and the kings of Spain. traces of her presence in the old inventories of the Royal Palace of Madrid and her works at the Real Academia de San Fernando and the Fundación Santamarca in Madrid.He spent the last years of her life in Milan, where she created a flourishing school of still-life painters, with his colleague and friend from Milan Vicenzino, renewing the figurative repertoire and satisfying the tastes of Milanese collectors of the late seventeenth century. The canvas is an example of Caffi production at the end of the century: a dating suggested by the thick material which, in the absence of defined contours, suggests with power and vivacity, rather than to describe with wisdom, the variegated petals. with gilt wood frame: 85 x69 cm without frame: 72 x 57 cm