Lot 26: Luca Forte (Naples 1615-before 1670)

Luca Forte (Naples 1615-before 1670)
A garland of fruit with guinea pigs and watermelons
oil on canvas, unframed
67 1/8 x 47 in. (170.4 x 119.4 cm.)

Naples, Villa Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Ritorno al Barocco da Caravaggio a Vanvitelli, 12 December 2009-11 April 2010, no. 1.212 (catalogue note by A. Tecce, pp. 366-7).

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

Luca Forte is regarded as one of the leading still-life painters in Naples at the beginning of the 17th century, and is particularly significant for bringing the naturalism of Caravaggio to the genre. Little is known of the artist's life, but he is recorded as a witness in 1639 to the marriage contract of the Neapolitan painter Aniello Falcone, and it is in Falcone's studio that he is thought to have trained. His early development owes much to contemporary still-life painters in Rome, such as Tomasso Salini and Giovanni Battista Crescenzi, and to the work of certain Spanish artists, most notably Blas de Ledesma and Juan van der Hamen.

The present canvas is a characteristic work of Forte's mature period, painted around 1650, and can be compared with the Garland of fruit in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna (see Angela Tecce, Ritorno al Barocco da Caravaggio a Vanvitelli, 2009, Naples, p. 366). Abandoning the simplified compositions of his earlier work (see Christie's, London 28 April 2006, lot 113, sold for £500,800, dated to c. 1630-40), Forte's late style is marked by a more complex spatial articulation and decorative vision.

In this sumptuous arrangement of fruit, form and depth are created through the play of light and textured surfaces, whilst butterflies emerge through the garland from a dusky background. Despite the grand scale, the meticulous brushwork which defined Forte's miniaturist-like technique is beautifully illustrated in details such as the lizard clambering over the worm-holed apple. The furtive guinea pigs beneath the garland are rendered with a striking realism that show the unwavering influence of Caravaggio at this late stage in Forte's career.