Lot 71: Giacomo Nani (Port'Ercole 1698-1770 Naples)

Roses, parrot tulips, delphinia, hydrangea and other flowers in a porcelain urn on a plinth with roses, tulips and other flowers in an upturned basket, in a wooded landscape; and Parrot tulips, roses, delphinium and other flowers in a sculpted urn on a plinth with other flowers in a landscape the first signed 'Giacomo Nani f' (lower centre, on the plinth) oil on canvas 493/4 x 391/4 in. (126.4 x 99.7 cm.); and 491/2 x 391/4 in. (125.8 x 100.3 cm.) a pair (2) NOTES Nani moved to Naples at the age of thirteen where he subsequently studied alongside Gaspare Lopez and Baldassare de Caro. Several of his paintings made their way to Spain including a series of twenty-four canvases painted for Isabella Farnese in 1746 which now hang in the Palazzo Reale de Riofri• near Segovia. Nani was more prolific as a painter of kitchen still lifes with game and meat. His flower paintings are thought to date from early in his career on the basis of a picture dated 1725 that appeared on the London art market in the 1960s.