Lot 251: MICHELE PACE DEL CAMPIDOGLIO ROME 1610 (?) - 1670(?)

PROPERTY OF THE DE SAUMAREZ FAMILY, REMOVED FROM SHRUBLAND PARK, SUFFOLK

STILL LIFE OF MELONS, PLUMS, PEACHES AND FIGS WITH PINK ROSES AND BLUE CONVOLVULOUS
STILL LIFE OF MELONS, FIGS AND CHERRIES AND OTHER FRUIT, FIGURES ON HORSEBACK TO THE RIGHT;

measurements note
each: 84 by 108 cm.; 33 by 42 1/2 in.

a pair, both oil on canvas

Quantity: 2

PROVENANCE

Probably acquired in Italy in 1700-02 by Martin Bowes, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk;
His daughter Anne, wife of Philip Bowes Broke (d.1801) of Broke Hall, Nacton, Suffolk;
Thence by inheritance to Sir George Broke-Middleton, 3rd Bt. (1812-87), Broke Hall and Shrublands, Suffolk;
Thence by inheritance to Jane Anne Acton Vere Broke, who married in 1882
James St. Vincent Saumarez, 4th Baron de Saumarez (1843-1937);
Thence by descent

LITERATURE

Inventory and Appraisement of the...Paintings & Prints..of Philip Bowes Broke Esq^r deceased of Nacton in Suffolk taken Spetember 1801, under Paintings Landcape..no.11. M.A. Campidoglio and No. 12 Ditto;
Inventory of Pictures. Broke Hall, Nacton, May 1875, Ground Floor, Dining Room, North Side, nos. 3 and 4, `Campidoglio - Fruit piece' ;
Broke Hall, Nacton, Suffolk. Inventory of Hosuehold Furniture..., December 1896, p.11, among oil paintings in the Dining Room, `Fruit and flowers, 32 by 42 inches x 2';

NOTE

The attribution to Campidoglio is traditional, and indeed can be traced back almost to the artist's lifetime. In the catalogue of the Pictures in the collection of Sir George Broke-Middleton at Broke Hall drawn up in 1855, an annotation records `the Italian paintings largely collected by Mr. Martin Bowes of Bury St. Edmunds, in Italy in 1700'. This may be the Martin Bowes, son and heir of Paul Bowes, who is recorded in Padua with Thomas Herne between 1701 and 1702 (cf. J. Ingamells, A Dictionary of British and Irish travellers in Italy 1701-1800, New Haven and London 1991, p. 113). His daughter Anne married Philip Bowes Broke of Broke Hall in Suffolk, and both paintings are recorded in the latter's collection before his death in 1801, and have remained in the possession of his descendants ever since.

Although the absence of signed or documented works makes a chronology for Campidoglio's work difficult to establish, the extremely fluid brushstrokes might suggest that these were late works. The animated lizard and the bamboo cane are characteristic features of many of his works, as is the bleak rocky landscape setting. All these elements, as well as the large watermelon with a knife plunged into it, recur, for example, in his Still life with fruit and a boy startled by a monkey in a private collection (reproduced in G. and U. Bocchi, Pittori di Natura Morta a Roma, Viadana 2005, p. 417, fig. MPC.14).