Francesco Caldei detto il Mantovano (1584 - 1674)

Pair of still lifes painted in oil on canvas with valuable qualities of execution, depicting gilded vases with classical grotesque sculptural decorations and containing rich floral compositions. The paintings are attributed to the painter Francesco Caldei, known as Francesco Mantovano (Mantua, 1584 - Venice, 1674). The measurements of the paintings, including the non-contemporary frames, are 120x94cm. Mantovano was a painter of probable Mantuan origin but Venetian training, whose pictorial corpus was only recently reassembled, in 1998, with the recovery of four of his works from the deposits of the Accademia dei Concordi in Rovigo, historically documented paintings. From that first nucleus, the image of a specialist in flower painting clearly emerged, an artist characterized by the habit of repeating his own modules with the propensity to represent antique vases with mascarons and historiated vases with reclining or recumbent figures. The obligatory presence of Mantovano in Rome is not definable with exactness in time, but it is a fact that must absolutely be taken into account due to the proximity of his compositions to the repertoire of Mario Nuzzi, known as Mario dei Fiori, and other artists active in Rome. We include with the sale a historical certificate of authenticity.