GASPARE LOPEZ (Naples, 1650 - Florence, 1740) Pair of floral still lifes Oil on canvas, 59X48.5 cm (2) Provenance: Private collection Gaspare Lopez was a protagonist of 18th century Neapolitan art in the wake of Andrea Belvedere and the French florists. It is Bernardo de Dominicis who points out how decisive for his career were the influences of Jean Baptiste Dubuisson, an able disseminator in Naples of the courtly manners of Jean Baptiste Monnoyer, who led him to a painting style of ornamental taste, but characterised by a lively chromatism. The works under scrutiny document very well the mature expressive qualities of the painter, who is capable of sprezzatura-like compositions without falling into the banality of illustrative replication, displaying a sensibility of considerable visual impact. In fact, these compositions confirm an instinctive modernity of painting in veils and thicknesses, but especially evoking a luminosity that radiates unhindered and unyielding, bathing the surface of the petals in iridescence. A comparison can be made with the Vaso fiorito (flower vase) published by Alberto Cottino (cf. Cottino, 2010, p. 28), which would seem to belong to the same series characterised by the use of partially glazed terracotta wineskins. Reference bibliography: B. De Dominici, Vite de pittori, scultori ed architetti napoletani, 1742-45, (anastatic reprint of 1979), Naples 1742-1745, pp. 576-577 L. Salerno, La natura morta italiana 1560-1805, Rome 1984, pp. 249-251 R. Middione, Gaspare Lopez, in La Natura morta in Italia, edited by F. Porzio and F. Zeri, Milan 1989, II, pp. 951 953 A. Cottino, Gaspare Lopez. Painter of princes and gentlemen, Genoa 2010, ad vocem