Michele Antonio Rapos (Turin 1733-1819) Pair of Still Life with triumph of flowers and fruit Oil on canvas, diameter 71 cm, with frame diameter 80 x D 5 cm Price: private negotiation Object accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and expertise (attached at the bottom of the page) The two circular canvases, beautifully crafted, depict two still lifes composed of triumphs of flowers and fruit. The floral compositions adorn vases with a gadrooned base, resting on stone bases and set in an outdoor environment, where lush plants shade the background and foreground. The paintings are characterized by a luminous and vibrant color palette with which the painter describes the flowers and fruits, in which reds, candid whites, and notes of blue prevail. The background in shades of ochre and dark green serves as a backdrop, highlighting the compositions. The canvas on the left shows, on the right next to some cut flowers on the ground, some peaches and a vine with a bunch of grapes. In the other canvas, on the right and in the foreground, vine leaves and bunches of grapes can again be admired. The flowers adorn a vase that culminates in an anthropomorphic figure worked in relief. The elegant compositions, with a scenographic impact and great decorative effect, are attributable to the illustrious Piedmontese still life painter Michele Antonio Rapos (or Raposo, not Rapous as many mistakenly write, distorting his name in the French style). Rapos was certainly the best still life painter in Piedmont between the second half of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Highly appreciated by the Savoy court and the local nobility, the artist is present in the main court residences and in numerous private palaces and castles throughout Piedmont. Michele Antonio Rapos was born in Turin in 1733 and died there in 1819. Brother of Vittorio Amedeo, also an important court painter, he specialized in the still life genre, achieving success at the Savoy court, from which he received commissions for the Royal Palace of Venaria Reale, Stupinigi, and the Royal Palace of Turin. Rapos's still lifes possess particular characteristics that make them easily identifiable: among the fruits, bunches of grapes, peaches, plums, pomegranates, cherries, and sometimes melons stand out; among the flowers, often collected in large monumental vases, delicate roses, soft peonies, carnations, and tulips can be admired. The architectural and decorative elements, including the gadrooned vases and porcelains, refer to the great models of the French tradition, in the style of Louis XV. Rapos interprets the Piedmontese rococo taste with grace and decorative lightness, demonstrating knowledge of the French still life painters of the eighteenth century, such as Jean-Baptiste Blain de Fontenay, François de Cuvilliés, and Alexandre-François Desporte. His first still lifes, datable around 1755, still have late Baroque results, dark backgrounds, lush nature, landscapes shrouded in darkness, from which flowers and fruits, decorative elements, emerge. In the canvases presented here, datable around 1760, the dark background makes the scene more evocative, in which the flowers and fruits stand out with colors, vivid and harmonious, mainly coordinated in the range of reds, from vermilion to scarlet. A characteristic of the artist is the use of a delicate brushstroke and the velvety rendering of fruits and petals. In the works, one can admire the soft fuzz that covers the peaches and the patina that distinguishes freshly picked grapes. The works belong to the artist's most intimate production, who painted many canvases of similar structure destined for a private collector who loved to adorn the Turin hill residences, where he spent the summer holidays, with paintings with pleasant and delightful subjects. The paintings are presented inside gilded wooden frames. Carlotta Venegoni