Lot 124: Panfilo Nuvolone (Cremona 1581-?1651 Milan?)

Figs and fig leaves in a tazza with flowers on a ledge oil on panel 15 1/8 x 211/4 in. (38.4 x 54 cm.) NOTES From an aristocratic Cremonese family, the religious works by Nuvolone are at the end of the pictorial tradition of the sixteenth century in Lombardy, as for example Giovanni Battista Trotti and Camillo Procaccini. Although his religious works are well documented, little is known about his activity as a painter of still lifes, except for the mention of three pictures with 'fruit and flowers' in the 1625 inventory of the collection of Duke Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy. However, on the basis of the few known signed and dated still lifes by the artist a considerable oeuvre has been established (see A. Morandotti, La natura morta in Italia, F. Zeri, ed., Milan, 1989, I, pp. 226-9). Amongst the signed works are a small panel of Grapes and peaches on a silver tazza, signed and dated 1620 (Milan, private collection; ibid., fig. 257), and another, similar composition, signed and dated 1617 (formerly with Galerie Sanct Lukas, Vienna). all still lifes attributed to Panfilo Nuvolone are on panel and with few exceptions show fruit on a glass or metal tazza on a ledge, as in the present picture, with a few jasmine flowers spilled over the fruits.