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) Full details of the painting (click HERE) The merit of the 17th-century Bergamo school of painting is that it "invented" a type of still life, almost exclusively of musical instruments, which has been very successful with collectors of the time and continues to be so with critics and the modern market. Alongside the dominant figure of Evaristo Baschenis, the great initiator of this pictorial trend, was Bartolomeo Bettera, who had the ability to grasp his legacy while still forging his own identity, with its own pictorial characteristics. Our beautiful canvas can be precisely placed within the scope of this second great painter, and in particular it is attributable to the hand of his son, Bonaventura Bettera (Bergamo, 1663 – documented until 1718), and illustrates, according to a scenography dear to the artist, the usual display 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 meager, of the painter has been reconstructed: the first dated 1718 coming 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 on 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 find the transition to an eighteenth-century decorative taste characterized by a marked lightening and cooling of the chromatic tone compared to the paintings of the father, to which is added a strong simplification of details. This characteristic can be precisely found in the painting kept at the Puskin Museum in Moscow (2), where we see the young Bettera who, starting from a phase of strict observance of his father's 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 details of our work, and its pendant, we thus find all the elements of the Bergamo still life, with the exhibition of objects and musical instruments, such as the 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 even several 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 series of works that may be analogous to ours, for scenic importance and style of composition. In particular: - 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 purchased works, both for Italy and abroad, through professional, tracked and insured carriers. If you wish to see this or other works in person, we will be happy to welcome you in our new gallery in Riva del Garda, in Viale Giuseppe Canella 18. We are waiting for you! Contact us for any information or to organize a visit, we will be happy to answer you. Follow us also on: https://www.instagram.com/galleriacastelbarco/?hl=it https://www.facebook.com/galleriacastelbarco/