The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts opened the exhibition “Flowers, Fruits, Musical Instruments in Italian Baroque Painting”

The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts opened the exhibition “Flowers, Fruits, Musical Instruments in Italian Baroque Painting”: it is dedicated to still life, although the title avoids this term. At the same time, the exhibition positions itself as a discovery: most of the 70 works (all of them from Russian museums) are shown for the first time, the authorship of many has been re-established. Tells Igor Grebelnikov.

Comparisons between the Italians and the Dutch cannot be avoided here, although they will not be in favor of the former. For the vast majority of museums, including the Pushkin Museum, Dutch still lifes are the pride of the collection, they are always on display, while Italian ones are usually in storage and are rarely taken out. Dutch artists are recognized as leaders in this genre not only because their still lifes are unattainably beautiful, but in fact, they are a new phenomenon in art. By the beginning of the 17th century, the Northern Netherlands got rid of Spanish rule in all respects, including in matters of faith: Calvinism was established there and, accordingly, the ban on decorating churches. The artists turned to other customers – burghers who decorated their houses, and to other subjects. The Golden Age of Dutch painting is a cult of everyday life, a reverent observation of the flow of life, be it clouds in the sky or something everyday on earth – a prayer before a meal, reading a letter, combing fleas from a dog, going to the pantry. In the same row there is still life: paintings with flowers, fruits, musical instruments and much more have come to be called stilleven – “still nature” or, more philosophically, “quiet life”. This is not just a reproduction of compositions from various objects – bouquets, kitchen utensils, food and already set tables, fish catches and hunting spoils, globes and scientific instruments involved the viewer in the game. Each element of the composition could turn out to be a symbol; it needs to be recognized, compared with others and “read” the artist’s message: a withered flower – death, a butterfly – an imperishable soul, oysters – temptation, a lemon with a serpentine-cut peel – a true Christian, and so on. Not to mention the genre of vanitas, “vanity of vanities,” paintings with the image of a skull, reminiscent of the inevitability of death. Still life has become a very popular genre, a favorite of the art market.

With Italian still life, everything turned out differently. In the 17th century, the main customer for artists there was the church, and religious painting dominated the hierarchy of genres. This was the heyday of the Baroque style with its ostentatious, overly showy attitude towards the world and faith, when all means were good. Object compositions become important elements of paintings of various genres. Just remember Caravaggio’s “Young Man with a Basket of Fruit” (1593): the curator of the current exhibition, Victoria Markova, insists that in his works “still life motifs for the first time became equivalent to a person,” and with “Fruit Basket” (1595) “the history of Western European still life begins ” And certainly Caravaggist techniques – aggressive chiaroscuro, naturalism, sculpturalism – influenced Italian still life.

The exhibition managed to cover an entire century in its development, illustrate all schools and trends with works from Russian museum collections, and as the title piece, get from a private collection “A Man’s Head / Basket of Fruits” (1590–1592) by Giuseppe Arcimboldo – an inverted painting, which, depending depending on how it is hung, it looks like either a head made of fruit, or a straw basket with apples, pears, plums, grapes. The artist became famous for his entire series of composite heads, including a portrait of Emperor Rudolf II, at whose court he served. The paintings seemed to hint: man is not the crown of nature, but its bizarre construct. The fame of Arcimboldo, who returned to Milan towards the end of his life, but painted on orders from the Habsburgs, rested on the authority of his patrons: after his death, the artist was forgotten for centuries and rediscovered in the 20th century by the surrealists. What can we say about other masters of Italian still life of the Baroque era. The first exhibition touching on this period in the development of the genre was held in Italy in 1964.

The current exhibition, although designed simply, provides an opportunity to feel the tastes of a wealthy clientele (in Italy, as in Holland, still lifes were ordered to decorate the interiors of villas and palazzos), and to learn regional specialties. In Rome they preferred flowers and fruits against the backdrop of parks and ruins, in the port of Naples they preferred fish catches, and in Bergamo they eagerly painted musical instruments – Lombardy was famous for their production. It’s a pity that the Hermitage did not release Caravaggio’s “The Lute Player” to Moscow (the young man is tightly surrounded by a solid still life – a violin, sheet music, vegetables and fruits, a bouquet), but the Pushkin Museum found followers of the great artist. The name of the author of “The Fruit Seller,” snatched by light from the darkness and almost ordering the viewer to buy his apples, is still unknown. But the artist of the “Divination Scenes” has been identified as Pietro della Vecchia: on the table in front of the men are tied black roosters and pumpkins.

An Italian still life next to a Dutch one may seem less edifying and more obsequious to the customer. Artists’ relationships with patrons were often direct and long-lasting. In this situation, they might not have signed their works, which provided art historians with work for centuries to come. The Pushkin Museum continues such research, and, presumably, some paintings after the current show will finally move from the storerooms to the permanent exhibition, the renovation of which is in full swing.