Circle of Giovanni Battista Ruoppolo

17th century Neapolitan school. Circle of GIOVANNI BATTISTA RUOPPOLO (Naples, 1629 - 1693).
"Still Life with Fruit".
Oil on canvas.
Measurements: 100'5 x 47 cm; 112'5 x 59 cm. (frame).
The painter has arranged on an elongated surface a ceramic dish full of figs, around which other fruits are distributed. Pomegranates, peaches and a few flowers complete the composition. The fruits, painted with meticulous, realistic detail in warm reddish and orange tones, as well as some purplish tones, are softly illuminated by a frontal spotlight outside the composition. This somewhat theatrical lighting makes them stand out against a practically monochrome, earthy-toned background. Both the composition and the treatment of light and colour make it possible to classify this work in the Neapolitan school of the 17th century, and to attribute it more specifically to Giovanni Battista Ruoppolo. This painter, a pupil of Paolo Porpora (1617-1673), devoted much of his career to painting still lifes, a genre that was born in the Baroque period and became extremely popular. Although it was not the genre most appreciated by scholars and academics, who were always interested in painting history, mythology or religious subjects, bourgeois and aristocrats throughout Europe, but especially in Flanders, the Low Countries, Spain and southern Italy, were extraordinarily attracted by the painting of everyday objects, which they commissioned to decorate their rooms. Fruit and flowers, sometimes accompanied by game, ornamental objects (ceramic, glass or metal pieces, watches, jewellery) and books, became the protagonists of splendid compositions that sometimes attain a high degree of verism and sometimes conceal a symbolic meaning, reflections on the passing of time, life and death or even religious questions. Still-life painting has particular characteristics in the different areas in which it is cultivated. In the case of Naples, it is a genre linked to painting derived from Caravaggio and also, to a large extent, to the Spanish Golden Age school. It is characterised by its formal restraint compared to Flemish still lifes, with dark backgrounds that lend a certain aura of mystery to the composition and violent, theatrical lighting. In his youth, to which the present work may belong, Giovanni Battista Ruoppolo showed a marked inclination towards a "Tenebrist", "Caravaggist" treatment of light, although he would later evolve towards more decorative compositions.