Tommaso Realfonso Masillo

(Napoli, 1677 - Napoli, 1743)

Oil on canvas

66x84 cm. Framed

A favorite pupil of Andrea Belvedere until the latter's departure for Spain in 1794, Tommaso Realfonso (or Realfonzo) played a special, and in some ways anomalous, role with respect to the developments in Neapolitan still life painting in the eighteenth century. His painting, in fact, constitutes a kind of trait d'union between the style that had been established with the great Baroque masters active in the seventeenth century, particularly Giovan Battista Ruoppolo, and the new, more graceful and ornamental trends that took hold precisely from the path marked out by Belvedere. This flamboyant still life of fruit en plein air, with the happy piece of landscape that opens to its right, fully testifies to Ruoppolo's influence, with its sumptuous composition, airy perspective spaciousness, virtuosity exhibited in the rendering of light effects and the theatricality of vigorous chiaroscuro contrasts. Particularly compelling appears to be the comparison with the two superb Still lifes with fruit in the Duca di Martina Museum in Naples, initialed "T.R.," especially in the bunches of grapes and vine leaves, which are of quite similar workmanship to those in our specimen.