Baldassarre di Caro

BALDASSARRE DI CARO (Naples, 1689-1750).
"Still life with fish".
Oil on canvas.
Attributed by Nicola Spinosa.
Measurements: 39 x 52,5 cm; 49 x 65 cm (frame).

Baldassarre di Caro was one of the greatest exponents of still life painting in Naples in the first half of the eighteenth century. A disciple of Andrea Belvedere and heir to the tradition begun by masters such as Paolo Porpora, he developed his own pictorial language, characterized by a vibrant brushstroke and an extraordinary ability to give elegance and compositional refinement to everyday subjects. His still lifes transcend the merely descriptive to acquire an almost aristocratic presence, typical of the late Neapolitan Baroque.

Its importance for the collector is particularly noteworthy: the work has been attributed by Nicola Spinosa, director emeritus of the Museo di Capodimonte and one of the leading international authorities on Neapolitan Baroque painting. An attribution signed by Spinosa is a first-rate endorsement in the academic world and the auction market.

The present work, centered on a rich arrangement of fish and vegetal elements, fully reflects that sensibility, combining naturalism, dramatic lighting and careful chromatic harmony. Di Caro displays an exquisite repertoire of food arranged against a dark background that intensifies the metallic sheen of the scales and the fleshiness of the produce. The scene combines abundance and transience, evoking the symbolic tradition of vanitas, while demonstrating the artist's technical virtuosity in the sensorial representation of matter.