Lot 29: FEDE GALIZIA | A crystal fruit stand with peaches, quinces, and jasmine flowers

oil on poplar panel

31.2 by 42.5 cm.; 12 1/4  by 16 3/4  in.

oil on poplar panel

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Fede Galizia. Still Life with Peaches . Signed with a monogram FG and date 1607. This painting is on a strong poplar panel, with two narrow cross bars still in place. The panel itself has remained perfectly flat although the surface texture of the paint, mainly in the dark background appears to have had a tendency for slightly raised horizontal lines along the grain with some tiny hollows in the darks. The luminous quality of the still life is beautifully intact almost throughout. Faint past lines of retouching can just be seen in the green fruit along the grain of the wood, but may simply be muting the craquelure, and the peaches and other beautifully pure, intact details of the still life have been remarkably finely preserved. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, on loan from a private collection, 1992–2001;
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, on loan from a private collection 2001-2015;
Cremona, Museo Civico Ala Ponzone; New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Painters of Reality: The legacy of Leonardo and Caravaggio in Lombardy, 14 February – 2 May; 27 May – 15 August 2004, no. 77.

S. Segal, 'An early still life by Fede Galizia', in The Burlington Magazine, 140, March 1998, pp. 164–71, reproduced figs 2–4;
A. Morandotti, 'Icone lombarde: La natura morta dalle origini all'età della riforma settecentesca', in Fasto e rigore: La natura morta nell'Italia settentrionale dal XVI al XVIII secolo, exh. cat., Reggia, Colorno, Milan 2000, pp. 41–42;
G. Berra, 'Arcimboldo, Vincenzo Campi, Figino, Fede Galizia, Caravaggio: Congiunture sulla nascità della natura morta in Lombardia', in Vincenzo Campi: Scene del quotidiano, exh. cat., Museo civico Ala Ponzone, Cremona 2000–01, p. 78, reproduced p. 79;
M. Gregori, 'Due partenze in Lombardia per la natura morta', in Natura morta italiana tra Cinquecento e Settecento, exh. cat., Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich 2002, p. 20; reprinted in La Natura morta italiana da Caravaggio al Settecento, exh. cat., Palazzo Strozzi, Florence 2003, p. 24;
F. Paliaga, 'Da Vincenzo Campi e Bartolommeo Passarotti a Fede Galizia e Panfilo Nuvolone', in Natura morta italiana tra Cinquecento e Settecento, exh. cat., Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich 2002, pp. 75–77 and p. 95; reprinted in La Natura morta italiana da Caravaggio al Settecento, exh. cat., Palazzo Strozzi, Florence 2003, pp. 81–83 and p. 97;
M. Marubbi in Painters of reality: The legacy of Leonardo and Caravaggio in Lombardy, exh. cat., Museo civico Ala Ponzone, Cremona and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2004, p. 184, cat. no. 77, detail reproduced in colour on p. 15, fig. 11;
M. Grassi, 'Miracle on 82nd Street', in The New Criterion, vol. 32, September 2013, p. 7.

Acquired in Berlin in the 1920s by a European private collector;
Private collection, Switzerland;
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1986.