Lot 30: Jacopo Ligozzi (Verona circa 1547-1627 Florence)

Two red vases with lilies, carnations, an iris, verbena and other flowers
oil on canvas
19 1/2 x 24 1/4 in. (49.5 x 61.6 cm.)

Jerusalem, Israel Museum, Italian still life painting, The Silvano Lodi collection, June 1994.
Tokyo, Seiji Togo Memorial Yasuda Kasai Museum of Art; and on tour in Japan, Italian still life painting, from The Silvano Lodi collection, 28 April-26 May 2001, no. 4.
Ravensburg, Schloss Achberg, Natura morta italiana: Italienische stilleben aus vier Jahrhunderten, Sammlung Silvano Lodi, 11 April-12 October 2003.

Italian still life painting, The Silvano Lodi collection, exhibition catalogue, Jerusalem, 1994.
Italian still life painting, from The Silvano Lodi collection exhibition catalogue, Tokyo, 2001, p. 41, no. 4.
S. Dathe, in the exhibition catalogue, Natura morta italiana: Italienische stilleben aus vier Jahrhunderten, Sammlung Silvano Lodi, Ravensburg, 2003, p. 31.

Florentine still life paintings trace their origins to the natural science illustrations made by Jacopo Ligozzi for the Medici dukes. The Veronese artist was recommended by Ulisse Aldrovandi to Francesco I de' Medici, who called Ligozzi to Florence around 1577 in order to document the flowers, herbs and fruits cultivated in the granducal gardens. The Gabinetto Disegni Stampe degli Uffizi still preserves many of Ligozzi's luminous illustrations of exotic flora and fauna in tempera on white paper. His style, though painstakingly studied, always retained a Mannerist elegance expressive of his birth in the mid-sixteenth century. Appreciating this quality, the Medici Grand Dukes translated his drawings of flowers into designs for magnificent tables inlaid with pietre dure.

Independent still life paintings by Jacopo Ligozzi are exceedingly rare. This remarkable Two red terracotta vases is the pendant composition of a painting of Two grey terracotta vases with flowers, also in the Lodi collection, sold at Christie's, New York, 6 April 2006, lot 53. The pictures represent different kinds and colours of majolica vases and flowers. Only two other independent still life paintings by Ligozzi are known: a pair of vases and flowers in an Italian private collection (J.T. Spike, The Sense of Pleasure, 2002, nos. 5-6). The fact that the four paintings have identical dimensions and symmetrical compositions suggests that they were executed together for a highly sophisticated patron, given the rarity of floral decorations in Florence at this time. The delicate brushwork, miniaturist details combined with strong, simple contours, have a Renaissance flavour that suggests a date as early as 1600.

The present Two red terracotta vases exemplifies the archaic aesthetic of the earliest flowerpieces painted in Italy. Two strongly-lit vases are isolated against a dark, impenetrable background and viewed in frontal symmetry. The painter's concentration on outline and colour yields a disciplined composition of iconic form that could be described as 'classical minimalist'. The absence of perspective appears to be an archaism derived from either Medieval or Ancient art.
Indeed, the emphasis assigned to the simple, solid vases seems calculated to call attention to the remarkable fact that the painting's colours, bright and faintly acid, are restricted to the alternation of red and white. Some fifty years ago, Ingvar Bergström, Erwin Panofsky and other scholars realised that the symbols assigned to flowers may derive from their shape, fragrance, herbal properties and of course their colours, red being the most redolent. Juan Sanchez Cotán, working in Spain around 1600, is an analogous example of an early still life specialist whose austere compositions may well be emblematic.

On the other hand, the flowers are carefully and accurately described in accordance with the Renaissance fascination with the inner workings of nature. In addition to such readily identifiable varieties as the lily, iris and carnation, the bouquet in the right-hand vase is unusually embellished by two white and one red verbena. The verbena, or vervain, which probably takes its name from the Latin herb bona, the good plant, was credited with important medicinal properties and was an indispensable planting in every herbal garden. The flower of the common verbena of southern Europe is simpler as a rule than these splendid examples, and it may be that Ligozzi has illustrated rare specimens imported from the New World.

We are grateful to Dr. John Spike for the above catalogue entry.

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.