Abraham Brueghel

(Antwerp 1631–1697 Naples)
Flowers in a vase and fruit on a table,
oil on canvas, 145 x 107 cm, framed

Provenance:
Spinola family, Castello di Pasturana, Piedmond, 19th century;
sold to Emilia Balduino in 1933;
and thence by descent to the present owner

We are grateful to Fred Meijer for confirming the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a high-resolution digital photograph.

This luxuriant still life fully demonstrates the great expressive capabilities of Abraham Brueghel. Flemish by birth, he became Italian by adoption, and was celebrated above all for his rich compositions of flowers and fruits, which he was able to imbue with a typically ‘Mediterranean’ spirit by deploying warm colours and an amply loaded brush to generate a rich impasto. His increasingly sumptuous style absorbed the influence of Roman baroque painting, and in turn became the primary point of reference for artists active as still life painters in the second half of the seventeenth century.

The present painting represents a vase filled with flowers of many colours and every kind, among which are roses, carnations, peonies and lilies. In the foreground, a soft light models the volumes of the fruits on the table top that include grapes, peaches, pomegranates and melons.

Abraham Brueghel was the son of the painter Jan Brueghel II (1601-1678); he trained with his father at Antwerp before moving to Rome where he is documented from 1659. Here his fame was asserted to such a point that all the most important collectors of the age vied to possess one of his works, a fact that is indeed borne-out by the inventories of Rome’s noble families such as the Chigi, Pamphilj, Colonna and Borghese. His compositions during this period were frequently produced in collaboration with other artists, notably Mario Nuzzi, Michelangelo Pace or Giacinto Brandi who painted the figures in some of his still life paintings. During the 1670s Brueghel moved permanently to Naples where he continued to conduct his brilliant career, creating a profound influence on the local school of painting.