Lot 1117 | Magnificent Still Life with Flowers, Playing Cards and Liqueur

CITTADINI, PIER FRANCESCO
('Il Milanese')
1616 Milan - 1681 Bologna


Title: Magnificent Still Life with Flowers, Playing Cards and Liqueur.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Mounting: Relined.
Measurement: 85 x 59cm.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.
Provenance:
Private ownership, Italy.

Pier Francesco Cittadini was an incredibly versatile painter. Born in Milan, he received his first training under Daniele Crespi, before he went to Bologna in 1634, where he worked, with little interruptions, all his life.
Here Cittadini became a pupil of Guido Reni, the dominant painter of the Bolognese school in the 17th century, and under his influence he created his first independent paintings. His early oeuvre consists mainly of sacred paintings in oil or fresco and can be described stylistically more classical.

A major change in Cittadini's work was brought about by his stay in Rome from the mid-1640s onwards, which probably lasted several years. There, in the international melting pot of art, he met painters from France, Germany and especially the Netherlands and Flanders. These encounters and inspirations led to "il Milanese" subsequently devoting himself increasingly to painting portraits and still lifes. In 1650 Cittadini was again in Bologna, where his new artistic orientation brought him new circles of buyers. Now he no longer painted predominantly on commission from the church, but rather on commission for private individuals, and this up to the highest circles. The Bolognese studio also received an order for the Louis XIV collection.

The still life shown here is from this new and much sought-after creative phase of Cittadini's work: on a table covered with an oriental carpet, some objects are arranged in such a way as to give the impression that a person has just left this place. A broken piece of pastry is partly dipped into a glass of liqueur, the bottle next to it is not closed. When thrown down, the white napkin hangs over the edge of the table and threatens to slide down. Did the cards, which were only carelessly pushed together, predict something that urged the fortune teller to leave? Only the flowers in the shimmering painted glass vase are static, but they stand dangerously close to the edge of the table, perhaps referring to the fragility of apparent calm.