Still-life with Instruments

still-life

The art of Baschenis represents a peculiar chapter in the development of Italian still-life painting: through it the Bergamo School suddenly became famous, and since he had many followers and pupils, the genre of still-life painting with instruments became widely practiced. His large ceremonial compositions are his most characteristic and best works. The moderate and cheerful realism of his style was inspired by Caravaggio, but it remained free of the soul-searching dilemma encountered by the painters of seventeenth-century Rome, Naples and Florence.

Loading map…

About the Artist

Evaristo Baschenis

1617 – 1677

Italian painter, the most prominent of a family of artists recorded from 1400. He was ordained c. 1647 and painted a few religious subjects, but his fame rests chiefly on his beautifully poised and polished still-lifes of muscial instruments. His predilection for the subject may have been associated with the contemporary fame of the Amati family of violin-makers of Cremona, which is near to Baschenis's native town of Bergamo. The Accademia Carrara there has the best collection of his paintings.

View all works →