Emilian School, 18th century Still life with hoopoe, frog and snake Oil on oval canvas, 73 x 100 cm With frame, 98 x 125 cm The still life in question, which has various distinctive characteristics of the production of the Emilian school of the eighteenth century, stands out for a richness and vivacity that go beyond the simple representation of inanimate objects. The artist has been able to create a complex and dynamic composition, where each element seems to interact with the others. At the center of the scene, on a stone base, stands an abundance of fruits: bunches of grapes, both white and black, red apples and pears, represented with an almost tactile realism. The vine leaves, which intertwine among the bunches, add a touch of movement and naturalness to the branched composition. But what makes this work particularly fascinating is the presence of animal elements. A hoopoe, with its characteristic red crest, proudly stands on a branch, observing the scene. Its presence, as well as that of the lizard that camouflages itself among the fruits in the foreground, instills life and a sense of expectation. These details, not common in the most austere still lifes, reflect a naturalistic sensibility typical of the period. Light plays a fundamental role, illuminating the fruits and animals with a soft touch, which delicately highlights their shapes and colors, but, at the same time, decisively. The expertly calibrated shadows give volume and three-dimensionality to the entire composition. Our painting appears close to the manner of Francesco Malagoli (Modena, early eighteenth century - news in 1776), a painter from Modena, active mainly in his native land and in the Mantua area, who the biographer Marcello Oretti, at the end of the eighteenth century, describes as an appreciated painter of still lifes, especially of "flowers, fruits ... and grapes so true as to deceive anyone." The only chronological certainty relating to the artist's pictorial activity coincides with the year 1776, in which Malagoli contributed to the decorative apparatus of the feast of Corpus Domini of Modena through the realization of two canvases bearing that date. The documents tell us of his works divided in the homes of counts and large landowners of Mantua and Modena. Malagoli followed the formative path of his fellow citizen Felice Rubbiani (1677-1752), making a decisive turning point in the painting of still life in Modena, when he chose to abandon the overflowing lyrical compositions proposed by the line of the master from Modena. Several works by Malagoli have long been erroneously attributed to Giovanni Antonio Nessoli or to the aforementioned Rubbiani as in the case of the pair of still lifes at the Civic Museum of Art of Modena and to that recently passed on the antique market in London. Always at the Civic Museum of Art of Modena are kept instead three works formerly considered hand of the son Bernardino Malagoli (1785-1859), who however never reached the excellent formal quality of the father. The references with the work under examination can be found in the Still lifes of the Museums of Ancient Art of Bologna. Malagoli in the course of his activity also confronts himself in the landscape investigation as in the Nature with fruits now in the Galleria Estense of Modena. A stylistic signature of the painter is also the presence of small birds which, as in our case, animate the composition, as evidenced by the aforementioned paintings of the Civic Museums of Modena and in two still lifes in private collection one from Milan, the other from Florence.