ELISABETTA MARCHIONI (active in Rovigo in the second half of the 17th century) Still life of flowers in a basin Oil on canvas, 70.5X51 cm Provenance: Rome, private collection Extraordinarily famous even in her lifetime, Elisabetta Marchioni coined a style and anticipated the Venetian floral fantasies referable to Francesco Guardi's ambit, characterised by vases and vessels of quick, almost impressionistic modelling, with a dark-reddish background to bring out dense bouquets of flowers. Characteristic of his creations is the frothy brushstroke, which defines the multi-coloured corollas on a more restrained and subdued colour palette than that of his colleague Margherita Caffi, with whom he often shares similar compositional choices. The canvases under scrutiny depict lush, luxuriant floral compositions in the foreground, according to the typical compositional conception of the artist, who skilfully combines roses, tulips, carnations and campanulas with sincere Baroque sensitivity. Therefore, it is plausible that these compositions should be dated to the artist's mature production, considering that his early trials must have been oriented towards a more traditional execution by painting 'Vasi all'antica'. However, the greasy and oily brushstrokes of our canvases do not allow us to date them any further than we should, as in her later work, Marchioni progressively lightened her touch, which became more and more flickering and light, without ever reaching the feathery consistency typical of Margherita Caffi's works. Reference bibliography: L. Salerno, La natura morta italiana, Rome 1984, p. 311, n. 90/2 F. Porzio, F. Zeri, La natura morta in Italia, Milan 1989, I, pp. 329-333 G. Bocchi-U. Bocchi, Elisabetta Marchioni, in Naturaliter. Nuovi contributi alla natura morta in Italia settentrionale e Toscana fra XVII e XVIII secolo, Calenzano 1998, pp. 417-434