Lot 1037 Dα

Researchers have assigned the notname “Master of the Grotesque Vase” (“Maestri del vaso a grottesche”) to a group of as-yet anonymous still life painters active in various regions of Italy in the first decades of the 17th century. Typical for these painters, who were among the very first still life painters in Italy, is the inclusion in their works of an “all'antica” style vase - from which the group's provisional moniker derives - based on Mannerist models, as well as the use of a central, vertical axis in their compositions.
The present work, which Alberto Cottino has assigned to a “Roman Master of the Grotesque Vase”, presents a typical example of these characteristics. The vertical central axis reaches from the base of the chased metal vase, through a group of yellow and red flowers, up to the white tulip at the tip of the bouquet. The penchant for symmetry also dominates the placement of the fauna within the work: The artist has painted two butterflies to the left and right of the upper section, and two birds on opposite sides of the vase.
One of the flowers has already begun to wilt, which is surely a reference to the Baroque preoccupation with Vanitas, and designed to remind the viewer of the transience of earthly life. This idea corresponds to the polychrome depiction of the Annunciation that decorates the body of the vase, which alludes to the birth of the saviour.