Jacob van der Kerkhoven, called Giacomo da Castello, 
Flemish c.1637-after 1712- 
Still life with...

Jacob van der Kerkhoven, called Giacomo da Castello, 
Flemish c.1637-after 1712- 

Still life with game and a basket of vegetables; 

oil on canvas, 77.8 x 114.5 cm. 

Provenance: 
Anon. sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 5 October 2005, lot 193. 
Private Collection, UK. 

Note: 
We are grateful to Dr Fred Meijer for confirming the attribution of the present work. 

This is a superb example of the work of this outstanding painter, who had a notable role in the development of still life painting in Italy during a career that spanned a half-century. Van der Kerkhoven was probably active in Venice shortly after the middle of the 17th century, after undertaking an apprenticeship with Jan Fyt (1611-1661) in his native Antwerp. There was a flourishing community of Flemish artists working in Venice in the 17th century (Fyt himself was there in the 1630s) and Van der Kerkhoven seems to have had relatives who had arrived there earlier. Flemish still life painting enjoyed great successes in Italy, and Van der Kerkhoven was known from the quarter in Venice (Sestriere di Castello), 'da Castello', where he lived, and was one of the principal figures working in this tradition. 

Van der Kerkhoven's painted oeuvre shows the influence of the Flemish and Italian schools of still life painting. From his Flemish training he retained an accurate precision in the description of details and qualities, both in animals and fruits or other foods. The Italian influence reveals itself in the bright Italian light, which he often tempered by the use of chiaroscuro. He painted large and ambitious compositions similar to those he had seen in the workshops of Antwerp and in the studio of Fyt while at the same time developing a personal language of almost naive charm. 

Painted with the vivid and brilliant naturalism that was so admired in Flemish painting, the present work is a brilliantly conceived Italian kitchen still life, dominated by the cardoon, asparagus and artichokes, as well as the more humble cabbages and leeks. Dr Meijer suggests that this is a relatively early work, and notes that the handling of the vegetables and the basket, in particular, is entirely characteristic of the artist's work. 

Van der Kerkhoven's work is featured in the major studies on 17th-century still life painting, for example in Federico Zeri's 'La Natura Morta Italiana', 1989, I, p.355-363, and L. Salterno's 'La Natura Morta Italiana', 1984, p.306f.