Lot 950 | Still Life with Musical Instruments and Sheet Music

BENEDETTI, ANDREA
circa 1615 Parma (?) - documented until 1649

Title: Still Life with Musical Instruments and Sheet Music.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Mounting: Relined.
Measurement: 116 x 83cm.
Notation: Monogrammed top centre on flute: AB.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.
Provenance:
Private ownership, Italy.

Andrea Benedetti was probably born in Modena or Parma around the middle of the second decade of the seventeenth century; neither the place nor the date of his death are known. He is first mentioned in Antwerp in 1636 as an apprentice of the unknown painter Vincenzo "Cernevael", who apparently invited the younger painter to follow him to Flanders. In 1638 Benedetti joined the studio of Jan Davidsz de Heem (1606 - ca. 1684) in Antwerp, one of the most important representatives of 17th-century Dutch still-life painting, and in 1641 he was admitted as a master to the St. Luke's Guild.
Probably at the end of the fifth decade, the artist left the Netherlands for Austria before returning to Italy, probably around 1660. In the meantime, he had established himself as an outstanding painter of still lifes in the manner of de Heem, of whom he can indeed be regarded as the main successor, so much so that his works are often confused with those of the master. They often depict grapes in a fruit bowl, silverware, musical instruments with an open book on a table, often covered with a rich oriental carpet.