43184 P5050106

g. fff fritit on a łabie, and rrachn te pcafc In u bat ran be consłdered tfae

masterpieee 'be artist in the Flórentinc collections: this is a still-lifc with

__ ___. mfiioR, pruncs. a gili metal vaśe In the form of a shell. and a tali;

an open u**-"    ¹

_    , ,_lrf. Mirmnndcd bv vine łcasw which nnderline the vertlcal effect

orvsral

taicie, * taw*    .

ha* Ko tiiHlerlined the wcight and natur

skilbii arrang*

of b • <‘rtinp^f>s'*^,’^f>n' On (nr comcr of the table. whieh is płaeed at an ■tjithatrtstai handle romrts a sensc of depth. The painter

łf the objects in contrast to the of the usual uh i te doth on uh ich the light plays with ___ _j_ioirt subdetv\

e\traort1łna' >

The balanoe attd quałltv of light ręached by van Ąelsi in this excc-

,__.i.ifitie are not attained in its pendant of a vase of carefullv rliosen

ptionai    ^r    •

flrnuu «•! on a marhle rabie half covered by a blue velvet cloth on which

,    .... „nrn. richh decorated watch uhich simbolises the passing of

"T Douff 3«* ' r^-    to

tim r uhich ailtrdes also the bcauty of the flowers u hich uill not last.

. _trj from i ieu minoi exa tnples with dc ad pinie or fruits still exi-_słin and ot ber paimings of these subjects uhich have disappeared, the i.ot ux*ri painied bv tan Aelst for the Medici seems to have been a large stiil-life of 1654 for prince Leopoldo, uhich is still in the Pitti pałace^{1 2}.

Ghen its large proportions (the canvas is 195.5 x 131 cm), the sub-;_{ecI is morc} comples ihan usnął, and also the certical format Ls unusual for the painter. In this case he was obliged to create a setting by including a red curtain in the background uhich cnerhangs the marble table arran-qed uith the familiar object. But, in addition to these, the artist put a vio-iin and a st orę on a chair agaipsi uhich leans a gun, while on the ground to the Jeft are dead birds and a lobsten all these objects allude. I believe, to the acurites typical of a prince, such as coliecting beautiful objects, humitig and shooting, performing or listening to musie, eating delicious fruit. gamę and shell-fish.

Jf van Aelst was the fasourite still-Iife painter of Cardinal Gian Carlo, his brother Leopoldo seems to have had a penchant for the little known and peculiar artist whose namc was Otto Marseus san Schrieck. A native of Nijmegen (ca. 1619), it seems (Houbraken³) that he was in Romę for some tlme frotn 1648 where he met and perhaps taught ran Aelst, who was about ten years younger. Marseus was not known so much for his still-life paintings. of uhich only few survive, but rather for his curious pain-tings of undenoood. a subject uhich had some influence on Neapolitan painters like Paolo Porpora, thus confirming the information given by Houbraken of his presence in NapJes for a certain period.

.,,-ins thai the artist attracted Leopoldo’* attcntion especially for ¹¹ ₀f hi_s painting: this was due to the great scięntific iniercsts of ii)i- ^l'! _whr> in fart had. with his nephew Cosirno HI. as we shall see, fiti^,r*._{f s(} numher of paintings by Marseus. The strange worki of ser-|| f wyperflies and rare plants represcnted by this painter alluded to _IJS|fiire of lift*, as does the serpent trying to swallow a butterfiy or tl or anlmaJs flghting each other. We do not know if Leopoldo was of this hidden meaning of Marseus’s paintings, but esidently he was rted by the scięntific aspect of their subjects. One of his rare stilł-lifes, ' ies a l/oe of anemones (originally a pendant to another now lost) which . the abstract quality of a botanical iliustration, enhanced by the preci-‘ with which the butterflies are represented⁸, is this Garland of Jlowm iiimSłm^{m a wa}^' colourful, realistic representation of beautiful flowers ^ttrrounded by butterflies and a dragonfly (fig. 3).

See: La natura i/iorta a palazzo e in triUa, n. 59.

1

Sec: Im natura morta a palazzo e in viUa, n. 1.

2

Ibidem, n. 4.

3

■ A. Houbraken. op.cit., voI. 2, p. J87.