circulo de VICENZO CAMPI

Circle of VICENZO CAMPI (Cremona, Italy, 1536 - 1591).
"Kitchen still life".
Oil on canvas. Reengineered from the 19th century.
It has repaints, restorations and a frame from a later period.
Measures: 145 x 216 cm; 172 x 241 cm (frame).

This work represents a scene whose theme oscillates between the pictorial tradition of the still life genre. The original composition of this work is in the Pinacoteca di Brera. The painting dated around 1678 has the title of "The poultry seller" and presents almost identical measurements to our work. The author configures a composition focused on the close-ups, starring a man and a woman inserted in a large still life, which is mostly arranged in the lateral areas of the pictorial surface. The author slightly captures the exterior, barely visible due to the number of elements that make up the scene. By actively introducing the main characters, holding both birds in their hands, the author shows that the main characters are doing business. This specific characteristic indicates that the painting is part of the aesthetic current that represents customs, one of the genres that enjoyed a greater development in the baroque school. Thus, the space is clearly defined and meticulously described, and the figures are represented in large sizes: both the two people and the animals found throughout the composition. However, despite this aesthetic feature, the group of animals that is distributed over the entire surface, especially those located in the foreground, have been presented as a true independent still life. Which shows how the author has brought together two different themes in the same piece, making them coexist in harmony.
The proximity in style as well as the dimensions of the work and its execution at the end of the 17th century show that it is a work produced in the master's environment, most likely by a disciple of his workshop or a painter who is well acquainted with his work in its environment.

Both in terms of its subject and its way of posing it, this work can be directly related to the figure of the Italian painter Vincenzo Campi, whose realism is understood by critics as an important precedent for Caravaggio's painting. Belonging to a family of painters and architects, Vincenzo developed his apprenticeship in the domestic environment in Cremona. He collaborated with his brothers Giulio and Antonio, and his earliest known works, dated to the 1560s, show few original details. Little by little, Campi's painting will become more interested in the representation of genre scenes, which portray everyday life with greater ¬naturalism. This approach to the reproduction of more realistic figures is transferred to his religious work, as evidenced by the "Crucifixion" (Prado), which has been said to have been seen by the young Caravaggio. At the same time, Vincenzo Campi knew how to incorporate new developments in Venetian painting into his painting, emphasizing color and chiaroscuro. In this way, he followed several parallel lines in his work. On the one hand, he continued to compose everyday scenes, sometimes including humorous themes under the influence of Flemish painters such as Beuckelaer and Aertsen. In addition, he carried out decorations with marked perspectives, such as those made on the frescoes of San Paolo Converso in Milan. Finally, he continued to make altar paintings in which he developed a naturalism of such great intensity that it has been seen as the closest precedent to Caravaggio's work.

Presenta repintes, restauraciones y marco de época posterior. eentelado del siglo XIX.