The striking element of the Flowers in a Vase with a Frog on the Base is instead the studied presence of the amphibian, which emphasises the vanitas theme already implicit in the fleeting beauty of the cut flowers.

The two paintings show rich and orderly arrangements of flowers in vases with two handles projecting from a solid stone bracket. Rooted in the late Mannerism of the mid-16th century, this kind of still life was attributed in the 20th century to an anonymous artist referred to as the Master of Grotesque Vases until critics gradually established that this large and varied production was rather the work of a series of painters of varying qualitative and cultural levels active in Rome and Naples during the early 17th century. Definition of the geographical and chronological boundaries of this production was initially hampered by the existence of a number of canvases bearing the signature of Giovanni da Udine, two of which dated 1538 and 1553.¹ Subsequent research made it possible, however, to establish the spurious nature of these references and to date the works to the first half of the 17th century in a context influenced by the revival of classical and Renaissance stylistic elements and far removed from the contemporary naturalistic innovations of the Caravaggesque painters. The source of many canvases attributed to the Master of Grotesque Vases can be identified as the Vasi Polidoreschi, the decoration of monochrome urns painted by Polidoro da Caravaggio on the façade of Palazzo Milesi in Rome, and more specifically the engravings based on the same by Cherubino Alberti in 1582 and Aegidius Sadeler in reverse in 1605.² 

These prototypes were probably drawn upon by painters like Giacomo Recco, whose Vase of Flowers with the Arms of Cardinal Poli can be taken as a good example of a canvas initially attributed to Giovanni da Udine³ before being recognised - not least through Federico Zeri’s correct identification of the coat of arms - as the work of the Neapolitan artist and dated to the later period between 1623 and 1653.⁴ 

The Cerruti Flowers in a Vase with Harpies and a Lion Mask was also initially attributed to Giovanni da Udine⁵ before being recognised as the work of an early 17th-century Roman painter. Particular importance attaches here to the careful rendering of the play of light both on the petals of the flowers and on the metal of their container, the sculptural monumentality of which is enhanced by the upward-looking viewpoint adopted for the composition as a whole. The striking element of the Flowers in a Vase with a Frog on the Base is instead the studied presence of the amphibian, which emphasises the vanitas theme already implicit in the fleeting beauty of the cut flowers. 

Simone Mattiello

¹ Sterling 1985, pp. 35-37.

² Salerno 1984, p. 32.

³ Bologna 1968, pl. 1.

⁴ R. Causa, “La natura morta a Napoli nel Sei e nel Settecento”, in Storia di Napoli 1967-74, vol. V, t. II, pp. 1003-1004; A. Tecce, “Giacomo Recco”, in Porzio 1989, vol. II, p. 880.

⁵ Salerno 1984, p. 33, fig. 10.3.