Giovanna Garzoni (Italian, 1600-1670)
A Plate of Figs
Bodycolor on vellum, laid on board
ca. 1662
Vellum size: 9 3/4 x 13 7/8 in
Frame size: 15 1/2 x 19 1/8 in
Provenance: (Possibly) Ferdinando II de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, commissioned from the artist by 1662.

Exhibitions: Westfalisches Landesmuseum fur Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Munster, Still-Leben in Europa, 25 November 1979 - 24 February 1980, no. 152; Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden, 15 March - 15 June 1980; Bayerische Staatgemaldesammlungen, Alte Pinokothek, Munich, Italian still life painting from three centuries, The Silvano Lodi collection, 27 November 1984 - 22 February 1985, no. 41; Gemaldegalerie Staaliche Museen-Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, 6 September - 27 Ocotober 1985; Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Italian still life painting, The Silvano Lodi collection, June 1994; Seiji Togo Memorial Kasai Museum of Art, Tokyo, Italian still life painting, The Silvano Lodi
collection, 28 April - 26 May 2001, no. 16. Schloss Achberg, Ravensburg, Natura morte italian: Italienische stilleben aus vier Jahrhunderten, Sammlung Silvano Lodi, 11 April - 12 October 2003; to be included in upcoming exhibtion at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C., Italian Women Artists from Renaissance to Baroque:
Commerce, Court & Convent, March 16 - July 15, 2007. Artemisia Gentileschi and Italian Women Artists around 1600 September 30, 2021–January 9, 2022 at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum and February 6–May 29, 2022 at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Literature: Still-Leben in Europa, exhibition catalogue (Munster, 1980), p. 285, no. 152; L. Salerno, Italian still painting from three centuries, The Silvano Lodi Collection, exhibition catalogue (Florence, 1984), pp. 103-4, no. 41; L. Salerno, La natura morta italiana 1560-1805 (Rome, 1984), p. 137, fig. 33.7; G. Casale, Giovanna Garzoni: ‘insigne miniatrice’, 1600-1670 (Milan 1991), no. A34; Italian still life painting, The Silvano Lodi collection, Jerusalem, 1994; Italian still life painting, from The Silvano Lodi collection, exhibition catalogue (Tokyo, 2001), p. 53, no. 16; S. Dathe, Natura morte italian: Italienisches stilleben aus vier Jahrhunderten, Sammlung Silvano Lodi, exhibition catalogue (Ravensburg, 2003), p. 37

A Plate of Figs belongs to the important suite of more than twenty fruit pieces that Giovanna Garzoni painted for Ferdinando II, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1621-1670). On October 28, 1662, Garzoni wrote to the Grand Duke to thank him for his generous compensation for her “miniature de frutti,” adding that she was enclosing “another
Tazza (dish) to add to the twenty others.” The parchment miniatures are cited in the 1692 inventory of the Villa Poggio Imperiale in Florence, the favorite residence of the Grand Duchess Vittoria. In the eighteenth century, the series was transferred with the Galleria Palatina to the city of Florence and today is exhibited at the Palazzo Pitti. This delightful Plate of figs is one of only six still lifes from the original suite that are today in private hands. Her characteristic technique of faint contour lines filled with color laid on in tiny parallel or stippled strokes that give many of her surfaces a distinctive speckled appearance is evident here.

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or by email at loricohen@aradergalleries.com