Still Life with Birds and Fruit

Still Life with Birds and Fruit

Giovanna Garzoni painted this magnificent still-life in 1650, towards the middle/beginning of the latter-half of her career. This painting was originally thought to be created by Jacobo Ligozzi, but is now accurately credited to Garzoni [1]. Art critics believe this work was created for the Medici family, who sponsored much of Garzoni's work and showcased them throughout their villas, and valued paintings including botanical and ornithological subjects [2]. Garzoni's work is an innovative blend of art and science, combining her artistic skills with an understanding of botany [3]. This work contains a bee-eater and three goldfinches exploring and probing various fruits around them, all contained on an earth-toned ground with a plain solid background. The fruits are a pear, a peach, two plums, and a fig. This painting is particularly interesting because it combines aspects of her other works. For example, the fig resembles those from her work "A Plate of Figs" (1655-1662). Mary D. Garrard believes that Garzoni's figs in both works resemble male genitalia in order to highlight the magic of sexual reproduction that is present among humans, animals, and plants [1]. Garzoni's goldfinches exploring the possibilities of eating the fruits resemble the bird in "China Bowl with Figs, a Bird, and Cherries" (1651-1662), who is striking and eating a fig. It is also important to note Garzoni's selection of materials. Her preferred medium was tempera on vellum, and she used vellum with graphite and watercolor instead of the traditional oil and canvas. Garzoni's use of vellum allows the work to be more luminous and bright [4]. This makes Garzoni's plants appear more natural and textured. Garzoni's work appears noticeably better-lit than Galizia's, and this reflects the differences between using vellum and canvas.

Giovanna Garzoni

[1] Mary D. Garrard. “The Not-So-Still Lifes of Giovanna Garzoni.” Essay. In "The Immensity of the Universe" in the Art of Giovanna Garzoni, 62-77. Sillabe, 2020.

[2] Tomasi, Lucia Tongiorgi, and Gretchen A. Hirschauer. The Flowering of Florence: Botanical Art for the Medici. Washington (D.C.): National Gallery of Art, 2002.

[3] Harris, Ann Sutherland. “Italian Still Life. New York.” The Burlington Magazine 125, no. 965, August 1983.

[4] “Farewell to Fall with Giovanna Garzoni's Still Lifes.” Italian Ways, December 20, 2018. https://www.italianways.com/farewell-to-fall-with-giovanna-garzonis-still-lifes/.

[5] “'The Greatness of the Universe' in the Art of Giovanna Garzoni: Uffizi Galleries.” Gallerie degli Uffizi. Accessed October 13, 2021. https://www.uffizi.it/en/events/the-greatness-of-the-universe-in-the-art-of-giovanna-garzoni.

[6] Anonymous. “Still Life with Birds and Fruit.” Cleveland Museum of Art, October 8, 2021. https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1955.140.

[7] Wpengine, and Name *. “A Review of the Uffizi's June 2020 Exhibition of Art by Giovanna Garzoni.” Art Herstory, September 20, 2021. https://artherstory.net/giovanna-garzoni-uffizi-exhibition-review-june2020/.

The Medici family sponsored many of Garzoni's still life paintings, and is thought to have sponsored this.

1650

Cameron DeChurch

Public domain

Watercolor with graphite, heightened with lead white on vellum, 25.7 cm x 41.6 cm

Drawing with watercolor

Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.