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Giuseppe Recco (Napoli, 1634 - Alicante, 1695) Domenico Gargiulo detto Micco Spadaro (Napoli, 1609/1612 - 1675)
a) Adoration of the Shepherds within a garland of flowers; b) Adoration of the Magi within a garland of flowers
pairs of oil on canvas
cm 76,5x103,5
both signed Gios. Recco top right
The pair of flower garlands with scenes of the Nativity of Christ, unpublished, represents one of the most successful examples of collaborative works carried out by Giuseppe Recco during his artistic career. The paternity of the flower frames, as well as in the signature, is confirmed in the typical style of the most famous of the Reccos, here evident in the very realistic and still life-like rendering of the different species of flowers of various colors translated into infinite shades, in the tactile evocation of the petals with a silky consistency, on which the drops of water sprinkled to revive the fresh flowers, just picked and woven into a sumptuous garland, shine. The elegance and truth of the faces with their red cheeks, the thin and luminous line, the lively and vibrant brush stroke especially in the brightly colored draperies that light up the scene in the foreground, entrusting the depth of the backgrounds to the shaded shadow, recall the intimate compositions of Domenico Gargiulo, who had often frequented these subjects in his canvases such as the Adoration of the Shepherds preserved at the National Museum and Certosa di San Martino or the two versions of the Adoration of the Magi in a private collection (see exhibition cat. Ritorno al Barocco, 2009, vol. II, nos. 1.109, 1.110, pp. 216-219), all works dated between the end of the 1650s and the beginning of the 1660s).
Bibliography: V. Di Fratta, "Life and works of Cavalier Giuseppe Recco "a very singular painter", artist and entrepreneur of the image in Baroque Naples (1634-1639)" (catalogue raisonné of the works of Giuseppe Recco to be published soon)
The pair of flower garlands with scenes of the Nativity of Christ, unpublished, represents one of the most successful examples of collaborative works carried out by Giuseppe Recco during his artistic career. The paternity of the flower frames, as well as in the signature, is confirmed in the typical style of the most famous of the Reccos, here evident in the very realistic and still life-like rendering of the different species of flowers of various colors translated into infinite shades, in the tactile evocation of the petals with a silky consistency, on which the drops of water sprinkled to revive the fresh flowers, just picked and woven into a sumptuous garland, shine. The elegance and truth of the faces with their red cheeks, the thin and luminous line, the lively and vibrant brush stroke especially in the brightly colored draperies that light up the scene in the foreground, entrusting the depth of the backgrounds to the shaded shadow, recall the intimate compositions of Domenico Gargiulo, who had often frequented these subjects in his canvases such as the Adoration of the Shepherds preserved at the National Museum and Certosa di San Martino or the two versions of the Adoration of the Magi in a private collection (see exhibition cat. Ritorno al Barocco, 2009, vol. II, nos. 1.109, 1.110, pp. 216-219), all works dated between the end of the 1650s and the beginning of the 1660s).
The presence of references to Luca Giordano's style in the figures attributed to Spadaro here leads one to believe that the canvases under discussion here can also be placed in the 1660s, therefore in a mature phase of Gargiulo's activity, in the years in which contacts with Giordano were more frequent (the collaboration between the two for the church of Santa Maria Regina Coeli dates back to 1664, see G. Sestieri - B. Daprà, Domenico Gargiulo detto Micco Spadaro, Milan-Rome 1994, p. 46). The dating also coincides well with the artistic path of Giuseppe Recco, who in the 1660s had by now achieved a certain notoriety and was well established in the Neapolitan artistic panorama, managing to obtain the first prestigious commissions.
The signature 'Gios. Recco' is statistically more frequent in the works of his early maturity, between the 1860s and the early 1870s.
Giuseppe Recco's collaboration with Micco Spadaro, so far not identified in other compositions, could have been favored by Giordano himself, with whom Giuseppe Recco had established an artistic and commercial partnership since he was young, being able to obtain through him the contacts of clients, merchants, agents and other artists.
The presence of Giuseppe Recco's signature and the absence of that of the author of figures raises two considerations: it could be an indication of a desire for accreditation on the market by the younger painter of still lifes who had been able to avail himself of the collaboration of one of the most illustrious Neapolitan painters of the first half of the seventeenth century; however, it could also be a sign of the substantial equality of the genres of painting in which the author of still lifes was in this case even prevalent.
Valeria Di Fratta
€ 35.000,00 / 45.000,00
Estimate