Lot 22: *ASTOLFO PETRAZZI (1580-1653)

oil on canvas The Sienese artist Astolfo Petrazzi (or Petrassi) is an artist about whom very little biographical information is known. His early works, which are mainly of a religious nature, are reminiscent of the paintings of Ventura Salimbeni and Raffaello Vanni (see F. Bisogni & M. Ciampolini, Bernardino Mei e la pittura barocca a Siena, Siena, Palazzo Chigi Saracini, 1987, p. 59 ff., particularly figs. 21-23). He was to develop, however, into one of the most significant still-life painters working in Tuscany during the first half of the 17th century. His earlier still lifes adhere to the tradition set out by contemporary still-life painters in Tuscany, such as Jacopo da Empoli (see, for example, Petrazzi's Kitchen still life with a cat in a private collection; L. Salerno, La natura morta italiana 1560-1805, p. 128, illus. fig. 31.1), but after a lengthy sojourn in Rome (1621-1631), he introduced a post-caravaggesque style to his works. Petrazzi's still lifes display a familiarity with both Caravaggesque and northern examples in the genre, in particular with paintings by Jan Brueghel, the Elder, whose works were to be found in Italy - particularly in Rome - already in the 17th century (see C. del Bravo, ``Due nature morte di Astolfo Petrazzi', in Paragone, vol. XII, no. 139, July 1961, p. 58). Petrazzi successfully combined both influences, in a way not dissimilar to the Master of the Hartford Still Life (compare the latter's eponymous work at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford; The Genius of Rome 1592-1623, exhibition catalogue, London, Royal Academy of Arts, January 20-April 16, 2001, cat. no. 18, illus. in color in the catalogue). This painting may be compared to two other works by Petrazzi: one, a Still life of fruit, vegetables and flowers laid on a table, together with a monkey (L. Salerno, La natura morta italiana 1560-1805, 1985, illus. fig. 312), and another, a Personification of Winter, the first still life by the artist to have bee

Earls of Enniskillen, and by descent at Florence Court, Co. Fermanagh to The Dowager Countess of Enniskillen, Kinloch House, Dunkeld, Perthshire (Her deceased sale: Christie's, London, December 17, 1999, lot 51, where it was exhibited and sold with r