Still-life with Grapes, Peaches, Pomegranates, Apples, Melon and Figs

Regarding the production of still-lifes by Pietro Paolo Bonzi, the only certain attributions to the painter are the frescoes with garlands of flowers, fruits and vegetables painted in Palazzo Mattei in Rome and the couple of paintings, signed «P. Paolo di Cortona» (formerly in the Wetzlar Collection in Amsterdam, fig. 1, and the Lorenzelli Collection in Bergamo, fig. 2) published by Charles Sterling¹. Scholars have recently agreed to add four more paintings to Gobbo dei Carracci’s limited corpus: Composition with Figs, Cherries, Apples, Strawberries, Pears, Cucumbers and Plums on Two Stone Shelves in a private collection; Composition with Grape Vines, Melons, Watermelons, Pears, Plums and Pomegranates on a Stone Shelf and Composition with Apples, Figs, Melons and Grapes both formerly part of the Sapori Collection, Spoleto; and finally, the present superb work in the Gaudium Magnum Collection, which I had the opportunity to study in 2013 in the home of the previous owner in Turin and which was also shown at the exhibition entitled L’origine della natura morta in Italia².

Where the international art market is concerned, works such as the Composition with Pomegranate and White and Black Grapes³, the pair comprising a Basket with Cherries and Basket with Artichokes and its companion piece Grapes of Diferent Qualities and Figs and Strawberries⁴ were attributed to Bonzi, but after careful examination, it is perfectly clear that they were painted by his followers (there is no trace of the sublime pictorial finesse or the pungent naturalism that are such features of the master’s rare autograph compositions).

It is also worth pointing out that the Vegetable Seller’s Shop in the Palacio de los Águila in Ávila, which was formerly attributed to Bonzi, is not by his hand (I personally consider it on stylistic and formal grounds to be a work of the Neapolitan school attributable to the circle of Giovanni Battista Recco; besides which, the signature «Pietro Paolo Gobbo fecit» is clearly false).

The Bonzi painting in the Gaudium Magnum Collection is built on a recurrent pattern (often employed by the artist): a dark background, a frontal viewpoint and two overlapping levels with of display with the naturalia of Wisdom and Balance. The first level, a stone table adorned with classic scalloping entirely covered by an elegant red drape, presents on the left a wicker basket – finely woven and full of peaches –, in the centre a half-melon, plums and a bunch of black grapes, on the right a ceramic plate with luscious ripe figs on large green leaves. The second level, a parallelepiped plinth, displays a large, overflowing bronze pot containing grapes, quinces, pomegranates and apples. Vine shoots with wide, inclined leaves occupy the background surface – but the observer is obviously unable to see them! – conferring a greater spatial 3D effect on the scene by means of a clever compositional expedient.

As Alberto Cottino points out, the composition on two juxtaposed levels and the cadenced disposition of the different elements on the stone table show affinities with the Spanish still-life genre, thus demonstrating the existence of a prolific exchange between Italian and Iberian culture and their respective artists and collectors.

Even Marquis Giovanni Battista Crescenzi – whose academy both Bonzi and Cavarozzi attended – moved to Spain in 1617 to follow Cardinal Zapata to the King’s court, eventually obtaining the position of “superintendant of royal works”; young Spanish painters of bodegones such as Juan Fernández, known as El Labrador, and Juan van den Hamen y León ranked among his protégés.

A fundamental element of the aesthetic (and Caravaggesque) culture of Bonzi’s still-life paintings, besides the addition of naturalia in an effort to enhance the realism of the pictorial investigation, is also his extremely meticulous luminist eye. Clearly and incisively pitched from the left, the light contributes to the entire plastic and volumetric modelling of the fruit by creating delicate chiaroscuri while at the same time, also lighting up the veins on the vine leaves. The viewer has the feeling of touching the wrinkled surfaces of melon skin, the velvety softness of peaches, the transparencies of the plums and the dusty patina above the grapes. Bonzi creates a “magical effect”: the surface’s dust is impalpable; grapes and bunches looks as though they were ruined by mildew or pressed by a tight grip. This brushwork establishes an important parallel with the canvas in the Wetzlar Collection, Amsterdam (figs. 3-4). The iconography, use of colour and handling of light show close affinities with other comparative paintings. It is thus perfectly plausible to argue that the Gaudium Magnum painting, the signed companion piece, and the Composition with a Basket of Pears, Bowl of Apples and Basin Full of Fruit sold at auction (New York, Sotheby’s, 28 January 2000, lot 131) were painted over the same period. These works also feature a vigorous and brilliant palette and rich elements that already hint at the imminent season of Roman Baroque. The most likely date for the paintings certainly falls sometime after the fresco of Palazzo Mattei 1622-1623, thus c. 1625-1630.

In conclusion, Giovanni Baglione, who was the same age as Bonzi and lived in Rome in the first half of the 17^th century, is likely to have seen his works in person. Baglione, who as his biographer is the most reliable source for Gobbo dei Carracci, wrote in his Life: «This man could really express himself boldly and strongly with such a lively naturalness, that his paintings look real, and if it is true that Zeus deceived the birds with grapes, similarly could he deceive men with those fruits; his talent was like a full autumn replete with fruit». The masterpiece in the Gaudium Magnum Collection bears out these poetic words in full.

Henceforth we shall simply have to keep up the search for the many still undiscovered paintings with which old inventories credit Pietro Paolo Bonzi – paintings waiting, after centuries of oblivion, only to be brought back to light thanks to the determination and enthusiasm of all scholars and collectors who share a passion for Italian still-life painting.