Lot 63: Giovanna Garzoni Ascoli Piceno? 1600-1670 Rome

Giovanna Garzoni Ascoli Piceno? 1600-1670 Rome
Still life with a bird eating a caterpillar, a gourd, and two peaches
bodycolor on vellum
9¾ x 13¾ in. 24.8 x 34.9 cm.

Giovanna Garzoni's artistic vision synthesizes Jacopo Ligozzi's naturalistic, scientific exactitude with a decorative sensibility of her own. Though the tradition that Garzoni was a pupil of Ligozzi in Florence has been disproved, there is no doubt that she had opportunities to study his work for the Medici court. Like Ligozzi, Garzoni preferred to paint the various elements in her still lifes at approximately life size. The two also share a general disdain for backgrounds: Ligozzi places his still lifes most often against flat dark grounds, while Garzoni is recognizable for her near-blank, pale backgrounds. She would arrange fruit, vegetables or flowers, limited to just a few varieties or even a single type, in a dish or on the ground. Animals and birds were less frequently included, but as the lively blue bird with its caterpillar in this work demonstrates, she was equally talented at representing fauna. Her stippled technique and chosen medium of bodycolor on vellum are hallmarks of her style, and she was held in particularly high regard by the nobility of Florence; no less than the Grand Duke said of the artist that 'she sold [her paintings] for whatever price she wished'.