The lot is accompanied by a study certificate from the Galleria d'Orlane, Casalmaggiore (an extract of which is reported below).

Provenance: Galleria D'Orlane, Casalmaggiore; Private collection, Milan.

Literature: G. Bocchi e U. Bocchi, "Arte nei secoli", Galleria d'Orlane catalogue, 1987, pp. 50-53 (as Bartolomeo Spadino Junior).

A careful re-reading of this painting and its companion carried out in the light of new historical-critical considerations that have emerged in the meantime allows today a more rational classification and their correct attribution to Bartolomeo Bimbi (the pair of paintings had previously been attributed to Bartolomeo Spadino Junior ). [...] Only one painting is enough to certify the accuracy of Bartolomeo Bimbi's paternity: it is the canvas with "Flowers and late summer fruit" signed and belonging to the Gismondi Gallery in Paris, presented by M.L. Strocchi on the kind recommendation of Mina Gregori; in it we find identical pears, figs, peaches and pumpkins, with analogies that invest even the detail of the pumpkin seeds. The naturally split pomegranates and the shiny grapes present in the "Still life of fruit and flowers" in the deposits of the Florentine Galleries are connected to the same fruits in our paintings, as are those proposed by the canvas with "Basket of flowers, pomegranates and plums" of the same Galleries; similarly the dewy and lustrous plums and the turgid, shiny and transparent cherries (so typical of Bimbi) are found in the "Vase with flowers and fruit branches and a little bird" from a private collection, exactly attributed by Salerno. [...] The appeals are so many as not to induce the slightest hesitation, moreover the lively and exuberant colorism that pervades each fruit is the lively seal necessary for his most typical naturalistic representations.
The pendant can be dated in the 18th century and belongs to the artist's mature period, by which time private clients had taken over with their own needs, here easy to deduce for the ornamental format, reduced and combined, pervaded by a Baroque impetus.