Circle of Giuseppe Recco, XVII century

Italian school, possibly seventeenth century.
Circle of GIUSEPPE RECCO (Naples, 1634 - Alicante, 1695).
"Still life of fish".
Oil on canvas.
It presents some faults in the pictorial surface.
Measurements: 59 x 72 cm.

This painting belongs to the Neapolitan environment of the XVII century, and can be placed within the circle of Giuseppe Recco, one of the most eminent representatives of the Italian Baroque still life. In this still life, the treatment of light, which falls on the wet surfaces of the marine bodies, generates a tenebrist atmosphere of high contrast, characteristic of the late Caravaggism that so influenced Neapolitan painting. The fish skins are meticulously worked: their scales glisten in shades of silver-gray, mother-of-pearl, copper and salmon, achieving a tactile and visual sensuality that emulates the direct experience of the market or the popular cuisine of southern Italy. The glassy eyes, treated with precise brushstrokes, bring an eerie realism to the whole, reinforcing the effect of presence.

Giuseppe Recco's training was linked to his family, who were also engaged in painting, it is believed that his artistic education began in Lombardy. His work is characterized by a naturalistic language, linked to tenebrism and hallmarks of color, especially focused on the theme of still life, in which he explored a great multiplicity of elements. Throughout his artistic career he worked for numerous Spanish nobles and vierres who were in Naples, this work led him to be required by Charles II, however, he died on the trip to Spain. ighly appreciated within the antiquarian market, as well as among collectors and art historians, the Neapolitan still life school of the Baroque enjoyed a spectacular development, leaving behind the splendors of the sixteenth century and progressing within a fully Baroque style and clearly identifiable. Artists such as Tommaso Realfonso, Nicola Casissa, Gaspare Lopez, Giacomo Nani and Baldassare de Caro continued the local tradition by specializing in the painting of flowers, fruit, fish and game, thus satisfying the demand of a vast clientele characterized by a new taste typical of the 17th century. To these authors must also be added the minor figures, who are slowly emerging from an unjust oblivion, and some artists who worked between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such as Francesco della Questa, Aniello Ascione, Nicola Malinconico, Gaetano Cusati, Onofrio Loth, Elena and Nicola Maria Recco, Giuseppe Ruoppolo and Andrea Belvedere. These Neapolitan still life painters, who worked during the 17th and early 18th century, are called "i generisti", and were important not only within their own environment but also, and especially, in Spain, where the development of the genre was clearly marked by Italian influence, specifically by the contribution of the Neapolitan school. Today this school is considered one of the most outstanding within the Baroque still life. The distinctive sign of Neapolitan Baroque painters was always their strong naturalistic character and their warm chromatism, with a dominance of reddish and earthy tones.