FRANCESCO DELLA QUESTA<\/p>\n
Naples, 1639-1723<\/p>\n
Still life with flowers and fruit<\/em><\/p>\n oil on canvas, 104×121 cm<\/p>\n signed: F:co Q<\/p>\n Signed in the lower right corner by an artist trained in Giovan Battista Ruoppolo\u2019s worshop, Francesco della Questa, this painting has as its subject a still life with fruit and flowers. The artist\u2019s naturalistic rendition and material solidity, not yet free of Caravaggio\u2019s influence, gave way to a levity that belongs more to the eighteenth century. This orientation is evident in this painting, especially in the flowers, which delicately spread around the vase, evoking the airy compositions of the artist\u2019s peer, Gaspare Lopez. Della Questa, who was probably of Spanish descent, is mentioned in a passage from De Dominicis\u2019 Vite, in which he writes \u201cand among other things, which he so faithfully recreated, he beautifully depicted greenery, for which he was praised profusely\u201d, hence \u201che was employed by various noblemen, who wished to embellish their rooms with his paintings, since, in that time, they were amateur painters, and great fine arts enthusiasts\u201d.<\/p>\n The Neapolitan artist\u2019s most prestigious work was probably his \u201cSeafood and hydrangea herbs\u201d, made with the collaboration of other great fellow artists, under Luca Giordano\u2019s supervision, for the 1684 Corpus Domini celebration, organized by the Viceroy of Naples, the Marquis of Carpio.<\/p>\n Other compositions similar to the one presented here have been on the antiques market on more than one occasion: let us recall, for instance, the flower and fruit pendant<\/em> auctioned by Dorotheum in 2010 (October 13, n. 459) and the still life similar to one of the pieces of the already-mentioned pair, sold by the same auction house (October 6, 1999, n. 124).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2464,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"portfolio-types":[46],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/antico.tornabuoniarte.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/2877"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/antico.tornabuoniarte.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/antico.tornabuoniarte.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antico.tornabuoniarte.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antico.tornabuoniarte.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2877"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antico.tornabuoniarte.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/antico.tornabuoniarte.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"portfolio-types","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antico.tornabuoniarte.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio-types?post=2877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}