Sotheby's. Master Paintings, New York, 22 May 2018
Attributed to Tommaso Salini, called Mao, Still Life with Vegetables, Fish, Clams, and a Basket of Citrus Fruit, on a stone ledg
Lot 53. Attributed to Tommaso Salini, called Mao (Rome circa 1575 - 1625), Still Life with Vegetables, Fish, Clams, and a Basket of Citrus Fruit, on a stone ledge, oil on canvas, 38 5/8 by 53 3/8 in.; 98.1 by 135.5 cm. Estimate 50,000–70,000 USD. Lot sold 112,500 USD. Courtesy Sotheby's.
Provenance: With Duse Antiquariato, Brescia.
Exhibited: Turin, Fondazione Accorsi, L'incantesimo dei sensi: una collezione di nature morte del Seicento per il Museo Accorsi, 30 November 2005 - 1 May 2006, no. 5 (as attributed to Tommaso Salini).
Literature: A. Cottino, L'incantesimo dei sensi: una collezione di nature morte del Seicento per il Museo Accorsi, exhibition catalogue, Turin 2005, pp. 48-49, 101-102, cat. no. 5, reproduced.
Note: This sharply lit and detailed still life of fish, clams, and a basket of citrus fruit encapsulates the visual tradition prevalent in Rome in the first quarter of the seventeenth century. With its heightened sense of realism and the dramatic balance of the effects of light and dark, this painting bears close stylistic similarities to a group of works ascribed to the hand of Tommaso Salini, an Italian artist known not only for his still-lifes, genre paintings, and religious scenes, but also as a witness in the lawsuit brought against Caravaggio by Giovanne Baglione. The still-lifes ascribed to Salini are grouped around a Still Life of Fruit and Vegetables, which is signed and dated 1621 and is the only work of this genre firmly given to the artist.1 Of this varied group, the present work stands out for its richness and quality.
1. See F. Zeri, La Natura Morta in Italia, Milan 1989, vol. II, p. 704, reproduced fig. 834.