This old master  still life was executed around 1700 and despite the lack of signature this still life painting has all cryteria to be attributed to the hand of Italian still life female painter Elisabetha Marchioni (also spelled Marchionni), a Venetian painter , who flourished ca. 1700 and specialized in still life paintings of flowers. She worked in Rovigo, the Polesine capital.

on our additional images you find other works by the artist , which manner, time of creation and composition are fully identical with our work.

There is no documentation on the place and date of birth and death, because her maiden name is unknown and Marchioni is that of her husband. It is believed that Elisabetta was the wife of the goldsmith Sante Marchioni, operating in the square of Rovigo, based on the testimony of a certain Francesco Bartoli from Bologna (1745-1806) - the first to speak of her in 1793 -, an actor and playwright, art lover, who had opened a bookshop in Rovigo. Bartoli testifies that "almost all the houses in Rovigo owned four, six, eight (his paintings)".

According to others, it would instead be the Rovigo nun Elisabetta Marchiori, unifying the two identities, the painter and the nun. Elizabeth, widowed, would she become a nun? On the other hand, there are also doubts about the surname Marchiori or Marchioni, of little Polesan attribution. Perhaps the goldsmith husband came from Tuscany, where the goldsmith's art boasts an ancient tradition. Filippo Pedrocco, author of an essay in the catalog dedicated to Andrea Brustolon (Skira, 2009), writes “Elisabetta Marchioni (Rovigo 1650-1700 circa)”. E. Martini considers it active even in the early 700th century.

The painter, much appreciated already in life and still listed internationally today, anticipated with her style the Venetian floral patterns referable to the sphere of Francesco Guardi, characterized by vases and receptacles of quick and almost impressionistic modeling, with a base dark reddish, to bring out dense bouquets of imaginative flowers.

Often confused with Margherita Caffi, or some other painter of similar culture, Elisabetta Marchioni's artistic production is actually characterized by some peculiar elements: the placement of the containers on two different levels to create polychrome and exuberant floral cascades in the proto-rococo style; compositions consisting of a vast assortment of flowers rendered with freedom and imagination rather than copied from reality; the inevitable "cascatelle di verde" and "the pulping of the petals in the roses".

Of its vast production, with infinite variations on the theme, it has been lost for the most part, while others have long been of uncertain attribution. However, very little remains in his hometown. A separate case is the floral antependium that Elizabeth herself gave to the Capuchin Church of Rovigo, now preserved in the Pinacoteca dell'Accademia dei Concordi.

Literature: Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.); Federico Zeri; Elizabeth E. Gardner (1973). Italian Paintings: Venetian School: A Catalog of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 33; Catalogo Beni Culturali, Still-life with Flowers at Galleria Rizzi, Sestri Levante near Genoa.; in on-line: Wikipedia in English; https://bottegadarteantichita.com/en/opera/elisabetta-marchionni-pittrice/

Inscription: unsigned.

Technique: oil on canvas, antique frame.

Measurements: unframed 37 1/3" x 27 1/2"(95 x 70 cm); framed 44 7/8" x 35 1/4"(114,5 x 89,5 cm).

Condition: overall good condition, a few retouchings by figure of parrot; old reclining of original canvas.