Bonaventura Bettera (Bergamo, 1663 – 1718)

Bonaventura Bettera (Bergamo, 1663 – documented until 1718) Still life with musical instruments Oil on canvas (90 x 116 cm - Framed 105 x 131 cm.) The pendant of this painting can be found at the following - link -   The merit of the 17th-century Bergamasque school of painting is that it “invented” a type of still life, almost exclusively of musical instruments, which was so successful with the collectors of the time and continues to be successful with critics and the modern market. Alongside the dominant figure of Evaristo Baschenis, the great initiator of this pictorial genre, was Bartolomeo Bettera, who was able to grasp his legacy but still forge his own identity, with his own pictorial characteristics. Our beautiful canvas is precisely placed in the context of this second great painter, and in particular is attributable to the hand of his son, Bonaventura Bettera (Bergamo, 1663 – documented until 1718), and illustrates, according to a set design dear to the artist, the usual exhibition of musical instruments placed on a surface covered with an elegant draped carpet and framed by a curtain with golden motifs descending from above. To allow us to support this attribution is the comparison with two signed canvases by Bonaventura, around which the corpus, albeit small, of the painter has been reconstructed: the first dated 1718 originating from Palazzo Passi in Bergamo (now La Spezia, private collection), the second, originally painted for Palazzo Greppi in Milan (now in a private collection in Bergamo) (1). (1) For both paintings see most recently A. Morandotti, Bonaventura Bettera, in La natura morta in Italia , edited by F. Porzio, 2 vols., Milan 1989, I, p. 278, fig. 324 and p. 275, fig. 325. It should be considered that many paintings that have passed through the art market have often been attributed to the father, given the great consonance of style, although a more in-depth analysis could in fact bring them closer to the production of the younger Bettera: in particular in Bonaventura we can see the transition to a eighteenth-century decorative taste characterized by a decided lightening and cooling of the color tone compared to the paintings of the father, to which is added a strong simplification of the details. This characteristic can be precisely found in the painting kept at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow (2), where we see the young Bettera who, starting from a phase of strict observance of the paternal models, declines them through a more luminous register and the adoption of celestial and Pastel tones. (2) Bettera Bonaventura (Moscow, Pushkin Museum, http://www.italian-art.ru/canvas/17-18_century/b/bettera_bonaventura/still_life_with_musical_instrum...) Returning to the detail of our work, and its pendant, we thus find all the elements of the Bergamasque still life, with the exhibition of objects and musical instruments, such as musical scores, the violin, the lute, the viola, all arranged on a table arranged asymmetrically with respect to the proportions of the canvas and accompanied by a worked carpet; in addition, other objects are identified, such as the globe, a chest, a book, and also various animals, all typical details of the Bettera workshop. There are no human figures, but musical instruments left there, inanimate objects, arranged apparently randomly, as if abandoned, some overturned, on others; there is even a layer of dust, next to the musical manuscripts. For comparative purposes, we illustrate below a collection of works that may be similar to ours, due to the scenic importance and style of the composition. Especially: - Bettera Bartolomeo - Bettera Bonaventura attr. (https://patrimonioculturale.regione.fvg.it/opera/?s_id=499871) - Bettera Bonaventura - Still life with musical instruments and globe (Private Collection. https://www.didatticarte.it/Blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/image-102.jpeg) - Bettera Bartolomeo, Still life with musical instruments and apple (Private collection, Bergamo, https://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/scheda/fotografia/151011/) - Bettera Bartolomeo, Still life with musical instruments (Antiquarian market, London, https://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/scheda/opera/86907/) - Bettera Bartolomeo (Christie’s, 27.1.2010, New York, https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-5287628/?intObjectID=5287628)   ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: The painting is sold complete with a pleasant golden frame and is accompanied by a certificate of guarantee and authenticity. We take care of and organize the transport of the purchased works, both for Italy and abroad, through professional, tracked and insured carriers. 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