Lot 242: FRANZ GODIN, CALLED FRANCESCO CODINO ACTIVE IN LOMBARDY IN 1621

FRANZ GODIN, CALLED FRANCESCO CODINO ACTIVE IN LOMBARDY IN 1621

STILL LIFE OF SWEETMEATS ON A GILT TAZZA, A LEMON, A PEWTER PLATE WITH OLIVES, CAPERS AND A LEMON, A ROEMER, A BREAD-ROLL, SHRIMPS AND A CRAB, TOGETHER WITH A MOUSE, ALL UPON A TABLE-TOP

measurements note
38.5 by 54.3 cm.; 15 1/8 by 21 3/8 in.

oil on panel

PROVENANCE

Anonymous sale, Rome, Christie's, 18 June 2002, lot 754, where acquired by the present owner.

NOTE

The artistic personality of Francesco Codino, by whom less than thirty works are known, was first established by S. Bottari (Nature morte della scuola di Francoforte, 1964) who noted the stylistic affinities between Codino's still lifes and those of his northern contemporaries. Dr. Gerhard Bott, a copy of whose expertise accompanies this lot (dated 24 April 2003), has suggested that he trained in the studio of Daniel Soreau in Hanau and that of Peter Binoit in Cologne, before emigrating to northern Italy in circa 1620.

To support this theory is the fact that the present composition derives from Peter Binoit's signed painting in the Galleria Sabaudia, Turin, though with minor adjustments (see G. Bott, Die Stillebenmaler Soreau, Binoit, Codino und Marrell in Hanau und Frankfurt 1600-1650, Hanau 2001, p. 210, cat. no. WV.B.44, reproduced). Codino is known to have painted this composition in at least five other variants, only one of which is signed with monogram (all reproduced in Bott, op. cit., pp. 214-5, cat. nos. WV.C.4-8). Painting versions seems to have been part of Codino's working practice, probably to meet the growing demand for his works: his Still life of grapes with a dead bird exists in three versions and his Still life of fruit in a porcelain bowl, dead birds and a vase of flowers in at least eight (ibid., p. 213, cat. nos. WV.C.1-3 and pp. 215-8, cat. nos. WV.C.9-16 respectively, all reproduced).