18th Century, Pair of Italian Rococo Still Life Painting by Michele Antonio

Michele Antonio Rapos (Turin 1733-1819)
Pair of paintings depicting Still Life with fruit composition
Oil on canvas, cm H 27 x W 36; frame cm H 37 x W 46 x D 3

The two paintings beautiful workmanship depict two still lifes composed of fruit compositions. The paintings are characterized by a color palette based on cold colors, iron, predominantly gray-blue and purple. The dark and shaded background serves as a backdrop, highlighting the compositions. The fruit is placed outdoors, in the right canvas resting on a stone top, in the other placed on a metal tray along with some roses and a red carnation that can be seen in the background.
The compositions, very pleasant and decorative, are attributed to the illustrious painter of Piedmontese still lifes Michele Antonio Rapos (or Rapous as it is more traditionally written), realized in his full artistic maturity.
Rapos was certainly the best author of still lifes in Piedmont between the second eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Much appreciated by the Savoy court and the local nobility, the artist is present in the main court residences and in numerous palaces and private castles throughout Piedmont. Michele Antonio Rapos was born in Turin in 1733 and died there in 1819. Brother of Vittorio Amedeo, also an important court painter, he specialized in the genre of still lifes and was successful at the Savoy court from which he received commissions for the Royal Palace of Venaria, Stupinigi, for the Royal Palace of Turin. The still lifes of the Rapos have particular characteristics that make them easily identifiable. The painter interprets the Piedmontese Rococo taste with grace and graceful decoration, showing to know the French still life painters of the eighteenth century.
The works presented here belong to the most intimate production of the artist, who paints many canvases of similar structure intended for a private collection that loved to adorn the hillside dwellings of Turin, where he spent the summer holidays, with pictures with pleasant and pleasant subjects.
The paintings are presented within contemporary carved and gilded wooden frames.