Margherita Caffi

Margherita Caffi (* around 1650; † September 20, 1710 in Milan ) was an Italian painter of flower and fruit still life .

Life

Margherita Caffi was probably born in Milan around 1650 as the daughter of the still life painter Francesco Volò and his wife Veronica. She probably completed an apprenticeship in the workshop of her uncle Vincenzo Volò, which was taken over by Giuseppe Vicenzino. In 1668 she married the still life painter Ludovico Caffi in Cremona . The couple had at least four children. In 1670 they had to leave Cremona and settled in Piacenza . Margherita Caffi spent the last years of her life in Milan, where she died in 1710.

plant

Still life with a vase of flowers

Around 30 paintings on canvas by Margherita Caffi are known, only a few of which are signed and dated. The still lifes mostly show flower arrangements of different sizes. In contrast to other still lifes of their time, which show strictly ordered bouquets and fruit bowls, Caffi's works are asymmetrical and mostly laid out in landscape format. The flowers appear natural and randomly arranged, often with no visible vases. The flowers appear in shades of red, blue and white against a dark background. The color is applied generously in several layers, similar to the Roman tradition of still life painting around Mario Nuzzi . Caffi's virtuoso, decorative style is exceptional for its time and was not more widespread until the 19th century. She influenced artists such as Elisabetta Marchioni († around 1700) and is regarded as the forerunner of the Venetian Baroque by Francesco Guardi .

Caffi's still lifes were valued by many collectors in their day. Ferdinando de 'Medici acquired several works in 1686. In addition, she had other princely clients, including the court of Archduke Ferdinand Karls in Innsbruck and the court in Madrid, and is said to have furnished castles in Lombardy , Tuscany and Tyrol . Numerous paintings were exported to Spain, possibly due to the relationship between the Spanish court and the Medici. Most of Caffi's works are now in private ownership, some paintings are kept in the Palazzo Pitti and the Uffizi in Florence , in the Museo del Prado in Madrid and in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna .

literature

• A. Barigozzi Brini, G. Fiori:  Caffi, Margherita. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 16:  Caccianiga-Caluso. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1973.
• John Somerville: Caffi, Margherita. In: Delia Gaze (Ed.): Dictionary of Women Artists Vol. 1. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 1997, pp. 339-340 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
• Natalie Geerlings: Flower and fruit still lifes by selected artists as commercial and collection objects in the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe. Dissertation, Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel 2005, pp. 92-102 ( PDF; 12.5 MB ).
• Inge Praxmarer: “As if they wanted to take the glory of our superiority away from us.” Visual artists in Tyrol. In: Office of the Tyrolean Provincial Government (Ed.): Panoptica. women.culture.tyrol. Innsbruck 2013, p. 44 ( PDF; 16 MB ).

Web links

Commons : Margherita Caffi  - Collection of Images