"Garden with flowers, terracotta vase with cherubs in relief, fruit, watermelon, pumpkin, and pomegranate." This previously unpublished painting, from the collection of an important Roman noble family, is of great scenic impact, with the individual compositional elements skillfully presented in a garden. It has a magnificent chromatic rendering, especially the bunches of different grapes (the "pizzutello" variety seemingly overflowing from the canvas), the watermelon split in two, and the varied, colorful flowers, etc. Abraham Brueghel, or "Neapolitan Brueghel," a painter of Flemish origin and descendant of a glorious line of painters, dedicated himself exclusively to the genre of the so-called "Still Life," or it would be better to say "Posed Life." He was active in the second half of the seventeenth century and carried out all his work in Italy, between Rome (where he learned from Michele Pace, who influenced the first part of his painting career), Naples, and Messina. He moved to Naples in 1676, and the works he created there influenced other contemporary painters, such as Giovan Battista Ruoppolo and Andrea Belvedere.The work presented here, executed around 1680, is in excellent condition and underwent lining in the early 2000s, and I had it cleaned to eliminate accumulated smoke, dust, and oxidized varnishes dating back to the 1800s. The painting is inserted in a coeval frame, probably redecorated with flowers in the 1800s. The work is accompanied by a technical sheet (expertise) attesting to its authenticity, by Professor Nicola Spinosa. This work can be compared with the canvas "Flowers and Fruit in a Garden," from a private collection, which was exhibited in the exhibition "Return to the Baroque. From Caravaggio to Vanvitelli", exhibition and catalog curated by Nicola Spinosa. Canvas measurement h 95 x w 125. with frame 114 x 148
