Offered by Brozzetti Antichità
Michele Antonio Rapos (Turin 1733-1819), Still life of flowers and fruits, Oil on canvas
frame: cm H 133 x W 124 x D 8 (canvas: cm 108.5 x 108.5)
The painting depicts a triumph of flowers composed inside a stone-made vase of antique taste placed in a garden. The work is presented inside a fine frame in finely carved and gilded wood, from the Baroque period. In the foreground on the left, above an architectural element, is a fruit such as a watermelon, grapes, a peach; on the right a pheasant placed in profile enlivens the composition. In the background you can see an architectural building of classic Renaissance taste and some tall trees. The twilight light makes the atmosphere evocative.
The work is attributed to the illustrious Piedmontese still life painter Michele Antonio Rapos (or Rapous as more traditionally written), certainly the best author of still life in Piedmont between the second eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Very appreciated by the Savoy court and the local nobility, the artist is present in the main residences of the court 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 life and was successful at the Sabauda court from which he received commissions for the Royal Palace of Venaria Reale, Stupinigi, for the Royal Palace of Turin. The still lifes of Rapos have special characteristics that make them easily identifiable. The painter interprets the Piedmontese rococo taste with grace and decorative grace, manifesting that he knows the French still-life painters of the eighteenth century.
We apologize for any translation errors from the Italian.
