Still-life with the Five Senses
by RECCO, Giuseppe, Oil on canvas
The main preoccupation of the Neapolitan still-life painters of the second half of the seventeenth century was not to create a perfect and deceptive representation of textures and surfaces, which was the aim of the northern Italian painters, or to an even greater extent, the Dutch masters of still-life. The Neapolitan artists focused on decorative effect expressed through pictorial composition. This intention is reflected in a virtuoso style of painting that seeks to be recognised and esteemed as such.