Lot 156: Carlo Magini (Fano 1720-1806)

Carlo Magini (Fano 1720-1806)
An oil lamp, ceramics, brass lantern, knife, onion and calf's head
oil on canvas
23¾ x 30 in. (60.3 x 76.2 cm.)

E. Malagutti, 'Aggiunte a Carlo Magini', Arte illustrata, I, no. 2, 1968, p. 38.
P. Zampetti, ed., Carlo Magini, Milan, 1990, p. 142, no. 100.

Carlo Magini's paintings were little known during his lifetime and in the nineteenth century. It was not until a 1922 exhibition and a 1952 publication that the artist began to receive the recognition he deserved as one of the most skillful and poetic still life painters of the eighteenth century.

Magini spent virtually his entire life in his native Fano in the Marche with the exception of some time in Perugia (1736) and Rome (1738-1743) where he worked as an assistant to his uncle Sebastiano Ceccarini and Francesco Mancini. Upon his return to Fano, Magini seems to have toiled in relative obscurity for the rest of his life, producing portraits of local citizenry as well as many variations of the rustic still life compositions for which he is now best known. About one hundred of these still life compositions exist which for the most part use the same repertoire of studio props -- earthenware jugs, glass bottles, a brass candlestick, copper pots and utentils, fruits, vegetables, pieces of meat and animal carcasses -- in seemingly endless variations. The objects are arranged on a simple table or ledge, sometimes with a shelf, such as the present lot. The present lot also includes a calf's head, a motif occasionally used by the artist (see Zampetti, op. cit., nos. 56, 89, 99, 111, 130-132, 140). A few of his paintings seem to have been conceived as pairs (see Christie's, London, 7 December 2006, lot 58).

Contemporary records are silent about Magini's patrons, and not all of his works are signed. His artistic identity only began to emerge with the inclusion of three paintings in the exhibition, La Pittura Italiana del seicento e del settecento, held at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence in 1922. The paintings were incorrectly identified as by the 'Pseudo Barbieri', thought to be Guercino's younger brother; however a distinct hand had been identified. Charles Sterling in his 1952 publication Still life painting from Antiquity to the Twentieth Century attributed the paintings to a northern Italian artist at the end of the eighteenth century. A year later, Robert Longhi published in Paragone his findings on the artist which included a painting signed and inscribed by Carlo Magini, 'painter of Fano'. In 1957 documents unearthed from the Library of Fano established Magini's birth date of 1720 and confirmed that he resided in Fano for most of his life.

The body of work by Magini that has subsequently emerged shows an artist whose compositions were deceptively simple yet artfully composed. Through the careful choreography of the same objects in multiple compositions, Magini subtly and continually explored the relationships between form, color, light, shadow and textures. His work is placed within a tradition that begins with Caravaggio, has predecedents in his Vèlasquez, near-contemporaries with Melèndez and Chardin, and extends to Giorgio Morandi in the twentieth century.