Master of the Acquavella Still-Life

The Master of the Acquavella Still-Life is the notname given to an unknown Baroque painter who was active in Rome during the 1610s and 1620s and specialized in still-lifes. The Master is regarded as one of the leading still life painters of this period and an important representative of the Caravaggesque style in still life painting.

Oeuvre He was given the notname after one of his works, the Still life with a basket of fruit, pears, apples, pomegranates and a vase of flowers, formerly in the collection of the Acquavella Gallery in New York and subsequently in the Galleria Lorenzelli collection in Bergamo. Other still lifes with the same style, themes and techniques as this work have been attributed to the master.

He painted with a remarkable attention to detail and filled his canvases with flowers and fruits which almost seem to burst out of the frame. The unusual crowding of elements to the extreme edge of the composition imbues his still lifes with dynamic tension. The Master treats these leaves in a more realistic manner than his contemporaries who paid more attention to the fruit and flowers. Other regular features are the depiction of fruit baskets and the chipping of the stone slab on which the still lifes are displayed.

He regularly collaborated with figure painters. A collaborations with Bartolomeo Cavarozzi has been suggested in the Lament of Aminta (1610–1615, three versions of which one in the Philadelphia Museum of Art and another in the Louvre, Paris).

Identification Various art historians have proposed identifications for the anonymous Master. The proposed artists include Luca Forte, Angelo Caroselli, Giovanni Battista Crescenzi, Pietro Paolini, Artemisia Gentileschi and Bartolomeo Cavarozzi.

The identification is made more difficult by the fact that most of his works are in private collections.