Still-Life with Musical Instruments and Fruit

Cristoforo Munari is an artist of much-vaunted elegance who refined his repertory in Rome under the Nordic still-life artists after training in Emilia – including the German painter Christian Berentz – and stands out due to his closer adherence to reality, including in his differentiated, camouflage painting effect, adjusted to the truth of the materials. He came into contact with the Grand Prince of Tuscany, Ferdinando de’ Medici, first in letters from Rome, then in Florence where, in 1706, he enrolled at the Florentine Academy of Drawing, showing his activity in the Grand Duchy, which saw him in the service of the Medici family, as well as of other collectors. With the early death of Ferdinando, Munari’s fortune gradually faded, leaving him to end his days in poverty and dedicating himself above all to restoration.