Narcissi and a carnation in an urn on a stone ledge with cherries, figs and butterflies

This painting belongs to a group of five Caravaggesque still lifes by the same hand, and is one of the earliest known still lifes dating from the early 17th century. Ferdinando Bologna attributed the first of this group to Caravaggio (Vase of flowers, fruit and two butterflies in the Lorenzelli collection; see Natura in Posa, 1968, no. 9), an attribution that was later questioned by Federico Zeri when he identified the pendant to that picture (see Diario di Lavoro 2, 1976, p. 102, figs. 100-1). Luigi Salerno, who published the present lot and its pendant (sold Christie's, New York, 6 April 2006, lot 57), demonstrated that all these pictures, along with a still life in the Molinari Pradelli collection, were by the same hand (loc. cit.). He also noted that many of the motifs in this group, such as the pietra dura vase, appeared in paintings by Agostino Verrocchio (born Rome c. 1586), who clearly held these pictures in great regard (see, for example, L. Salerno, Still life painting in Italy, 1984, fig. 24.5). Both Agostino and his older brother, Giovanni Battista Verrocchio (Rome 1573-1626), formed their studio well within Caravaggio's lifetime. One recent hypothesis by Drs. Gianluca and Ulisse Bocchi is that Giovanni Battista Verrocchio was the author of the present painting (loc. cit.), so strongly reflective of Caravaggio's Roman still lifes.

We are grateful to Dr. John Spike for his assistance in the cataloguing of this lot.