Provenance
Possibly Cardinal Cesare Monti [1594 –1650], Milan;[1] Possibly by descent to his cousin Giulio Monti [c.1604 -1686], Count of Valsassina, Milan, in 1650; Possibly Count Cesare Monti Melzi [d. 1741], Palazzo Monti (later known as Palazzo Sormani-Andreani and Verri), Milan; Possibly by descent to his family.[2] Infante Don Sebastián Gabriel Borbón y Braganza [1811 –1875], Pau.[3] Calini family Brescia, since c.1900; acquired December 2020 by (P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., Ltd, London); Purchased 2022 by NGA.
[1] Provenance adapted from Colnaghi catalogue entry; copy in NGA curatorial records.
[2] This is suggested by a note in an inventory conducted the year after the Count’s death.
[3] Crowned SG cyphers on the reverse of the painting attest to the Infante’s ownership.
Accession Number
2023.3.2
Medium
oil on panel
Dimensions
overall: 35.3 × 59.1 cm (13 7/8 × 23 1/4 in.) | framed: 51 × 75 × 7 cm (20 1/16 × 29 1/2 × 2 3/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of Funds from Roger Sant, Patrons’ Permanent Fund, and Gift of Funds from Deborah Burklund
Tags
Painting Baroque (1600–1750) Oil Painting Panel Painting Italian
Background & Context
Background Story
Fede Galizia (c. 1578-1630) was an Italian painter known as one of the earliest still life painters in Western art, whose precisely observed fruit still lifes predate the more famous still lifes of the Dutch Golden Age. Still Life with Apples, Pears, Cucumbers, Figs, Plums, and a Melon from c. 1625-30 depicts an abundant arrangement of fruit in the precisely observed, restrained manner that distinguishes Galizia's best work from the more lavish still lifes of her Dutch and Flemish successors. The c. 1625-30 date places this in Galizia's mature period, when she was producing the still lifes that make her one of the earliest practitioners of the still life genre.
Cultural Impact
Still Life with Apples, Pears, Cucumbers, Figs, Plums, and a Melon is important in the history of still life painting because it demonstrates the precisely observed, restrained manner that makes Galizia one of the earliest practitioners of the still life genre. Galizia's still lifes predate the more famous still lifes of the Dutch Golden Age, and her precisely observed, restrained manner represents an alternative to the more lavish tradition that would dominate still life painting in the 17th century.
Why It Matters
Still Life with Apples, Pears, Cucumbers, Figs, Plums, and a Melon is Galizia's pioneering still life: an abundant arrangement of fruit rendered with the precise observation and restraint that make her one of the earliest practitioners of the still life genre. The c. 1625-30 painting predates the more famous Dutch still lifes, representing an earlier tradition of precisely observed restraint.
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