Francesco Fieravino called Il Maltese (Malta 1611 – Rome 1654), attr., Still life with armor, carpet, and drapery

Francesco Fieravino called Il Maltese (Malta 1611 – Rome 1654), attr. Still life with armor, carpet, and drapery Oil on canvas, 94 x 120 cm The canvas attributed to Francesco Fieravino, known as Il Maltese, depicts a still life with armor, carpet, and drapery, elements frequently used by other artists of the time, such as Giovanni Domenico Valentini, Carlo Manieri, and Antonio Tibaldi. The canvas format, 90 x 130 cm, also known as the "emperor's canvas," was among the most common in Baroque Rome. Our artist was long confused with Benedetto Fioravanti and the painter Francesco Noletti, who was also of Maltese origin and thus nicknamed alike upon arriving in Rome. Only after the discovery of a portrait by Noletti, housed at the Foundation for International Studies in Valletta, was it possible to distinguish the identities of the two artists. Francesco Fieravino was born in Malta in 1611 and worked primarily in Rome between 1630 and 1654, where his main patron, the Knight of Malta Pietro Casarini, resided. His career was prolific, especially since his still lifes were highly sought after by Roman nobility, to the extent that some were included in the collection of the powerful Barberini family. Their inventories are the first to mention the "Maltese" between 1631 and 1636 as the author of an Agony in the Garden, and later, in 1661, a Francesco Maltese is noted as a specialist in carpet paintings, with two canvases reproduced in engravings by Jacobus Coelemans in 1703 and 1704 (Omins salus in ferrus est and Quaedam sensum instrumenta). In the absence of signed works, these two engravings served as starting points for identifying the artist's hand. Upon his death, the anonymous compiler of his death certificate took care to remember him as a celebrated painter, a testament to his widespread fame. However, the corpus of works attributed to Il Maltese remains limited even today, although studies over the past few decades have diligently worked to better define the contours of our painter, one of the most recognized and interesting for the still life genre in Rome under Pope Urban VIII Barberini and Alexander VII Chigi, belonging to two of the wealthiest patron families of 17th-century collecting. In more recent years, Fieravino's hand has been recognized in three works housed at the Bilbao Museum of Fine Arts. His rich still lifes are characterized by the presence of sumptuous oriental carpets, richly colored tapestries, enveloping draperies covering tables and shelves, scattered flowers and fruits alongside precious objects, musical instruments, and framed images or mirrors. The work in question exhibits precisely these characteristics: on a large surface covered by a black damask carpet, parts of a valuable armor, lances, feathers, and a small statue on the extreme right are placed haphazardly, along with a bowl of flowers in the lower left and a large red drapery, which allows a glimpse of a bas-relief in the background. The choice of objects is not random, but stems from a high-level commission that wished to manifest its values, namely warrior honor, hence the choice of weapons, and interest in culture and the arts, as indicated by the presence of sculptures. Note the painter's great skill in describing objects in minute detail, reaching the peak of virtuosity in rendering the fabric and the chiseled bronze details of the armor.