Still Life with Pewter Plate, Shrimps, a Lemon, Glass Cruets, Bread and a Bottle of Wine

The two splendid still lifes, until not many years ago considered the only ones attributable to the artist, were found among the property of the secretary of the Accademia di Belle Arti Carlo Bianconi at the time of his death, in 1802. The attribution to Ceruti, already put forward by Giuseppe Bossi in 1806 at the time of the paintings’ transfer to Brera, did not find unanimous acceptance among critics, hindered as it was at the time by the lack of comparisons with similar works: currently, thanks to the greater knowledge of the artist’s catalogue and, more generally, of the pictorial production of the 18th century in Lombardy, the two canvases in Brera are regarded as the culmination of the naturalistic research conducted by Ceruti, rendered precious by the play of light and the meticulous representation of the details. Once thought to be youthful works, these masterpieces of Ceruti’s mature period mark the peak of his realism with their simple composition, the delicate play of light on glass, the intense, contrasting colour of the shrimps and the lemon, and a meticulous rendering of detail. Ceruti’s Spanish contemporary Luis Mélendez was the only other painter to achieve this bare, poetic depiction of daily life.