Artibus et Historiae no. 73 (XXXVII)
2016, ISSN 0391-9064Up
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ALBERTO COTTINO - Replicas, Quotations and Serial Production in Italian Baroque Still Lifes: A Few ‘Case Studies’ (pp. 299-312)
This essay examines for the first time some aspects of Italian Baroque still lifes, mainly those not related to their attributions, but to the process involved in creating this kind of works. One of the features of the Italian still life was its serial production (the first real ‘commercial’ one in the modern sense of the term), which often led to entire or partial repetition of the subjects. The author examines paintings by Michelangelo Pace, Abraham Brueghel and Christian Berentz (some unpublished), who often used this method of composition, and points out that real copies were very rare. This was a new, modern way of creating and enjoying works of art, based on the decorative and commercial function of this genre, which fit in the emerging art market and changed the firmly established and consolidated relationship between patron and painter. Also these considerations can influence the question of the attribution of individual works.