FRANCESCO CALDEI known as FRANCESCO MANTOVANO (Mantua? - news in Venice from 1636 to 1644 and from 1660 to 1663) Still life with tulips, carnations and other flowers in a blue and white porcelain vase Oil on canvas, 48.5X36.5 cm Provenance: London, Sotheby's, 27 October 2001, lot 79 (as Francesco Mantovano) Private collection Active in Venice, where his membership of the Fraglia dei pittori is documented between 1636 and 1639, as a florist and still-life creator, biographical information on Mantovano is still lacking (cf. R. Pallucchini, La pittura veneziana del Seicento, Milan 1981, I, p. 329), but known works allow for interesting comparisons with the canvas under examination. A useful parameter is the Vaso con fiori bianchi e rossi (Vase with white and red flowers) at the Accademia dei Concordi in Rovigo, where the petals of large proportions and vividly alternating colours combined with ranges from brilliant white to vermilion, reveal a formal attention to Flemish art and a chronology to the most archaic phase. It was his stay in Rome that impressed on the artist the change in the Baroque direction of his art, thanks to the lesson of Mario Nuzzi, who influenced him to use elegant vases decorated with figures and topped with scenographic bouquets. Returning to the work we are examining, it is assumed that it can be dated to the mature production, due to the use of the historiated vase instead of the grotesque one, a symptom of a change in taste that was already underway and therefore around the middle of the century. Reference bibliography: E. A. Safarik, F. Bottari, in La natura morta in Italia, edited by F. Porzio and F. Zeri, Milan 1989, vol. I, pp. 326-328 G. Bocchi. U. Bocchi, Francesco Mantovano, in Naturaliter. Nuovi contributi alla natura morta in Italia settentrionale e Toscana fra XVII e XVIII secolo, Calenzano (Florence) 1998, pp. 392-410 G. Bocchi, U. Bocchi, Francesco Mantovano o Mantovani, in Pittori di natura morta a Roma. Italian Artists 1630-1750, Viadana (Mantua) 2005, pp. 203-243