Lombard school, 19th century, Composition of flowers, fruit and fountain

Lombard school, 19th century Composition of flowers, fruit and fountain Oil on canvas, 76 x 101 The considerably large oval canvas depicts a still life composed of an abundance of flowers and fruits arranged haphazardly on a stone pedestal immersed in a lush garden, from which one can glimpse the tops of tall trees that close the perspective towards the horizon. A gushing fountain and a slightly raised crater from which a floral festoon hangs further crowd the scene; paying attention to the lenticular details, one notes the presence of a small snail at the base of the crater and some butterflies scattered among the pomegranates, bunches of grapes, and pumpkins. The work belongs to the 19th century and revisits compositions already used in previous centuries, starting from the 17th century and then continuing in the 18th century, both by French and Flemish artists and by Italian painters who learned a great deal from foreigners who came to the peninsula for study or work. The maintenance and return of this graceful taste with bright and varied colors, as well as the predilection for this pictorial genre, was reaffirmed in the 19th century, starting from France and then touching other European countries, including northern Italy, which was very culturally and artistically linked to the French. The subject traces the motifs used in the past but through more vivid and luminous colors and without creating overly intense light contrasts, but rather uniformly radiating the various elements with warm tones; moreover, the contours are defined, the volumes more compact and less nuanced than works of the same subject from the past.