TINTORE, Simone del

Italian painter. He trained at the painting academy opened in Lucca by Pietro Paolini in the mid-17th century and was acknowledged to be an excellent painter of still-lifes. He bequeathed to his third wife, Caterina del Testore, 13 paintings, almost all of them of religious subjects, which may represent evidence of a still unknown aspect of Simone’s painting. There are numerous records of still-lifes by him in collections in Lucca: fruit, fungi, flowers, animals, fish and kitchens are among the most common subjects.

Attempts to recreate his oeuvre were inspired by a Still-life with Mushrooms and Cabbage (private collection), which has an old inscription with the name of the painter on the back of the canvas. On the basis of that picture, two Still-Lifes with Fruit and Vegetables (both Milan, Castello Sforzesco) are also attributed to Simone, one of which bears the initials ST, which had previously been attributed to Tommaso Salini. The same exhibition (Naples, 1964) contained two still-lifes with the monogram ST and the date 1645 (both Lucca, Mazzarosa private collection), and there is also another similarly monogrammed painting, dated 1671, depicting a Still-life with Animals and Fruit (Milan, private collection). A more complicated painting, Two Figures in a Landscape with Animals, Fruit and Vegetables was identified in 1984, and the hypothesis was advanced that the works of Bernardo Strozzi provided Simone with an early source of inspiration.