Vincenzino

Triple Arrangement with Pink Peonies, Roses and Carnations

Artist
Giuseppe Volò called Vincenzino
(Milano, 1662-Milano, 1700 )

Details
Oil on canvas, 73×97 cm

Provenance
Private Collection.

Exhibition
«From Light to Enlightenment»: Italian old master paintings from 16th to 18th centuries, ShanghaiArt Museum, China, 12-17 November 2005.

 Literature
«From Light to Enlightenment»: Italian old master paintings from 16th to 18th centuries,Exhibitioncatalogue, Shanghai Art Museum, China, 12-17 November 2005, n 32.This canvas is an exercise in elegant decoration: it is horizontal and presents a profusion of flowersarranged on two surfaces: above, our eye is attracted by an arrangementwith deep pink peonies,while a metal vase to the right contains red carnations and double white roses. Below, in the centreforeground, more pink peonies and large white roses are displayed. Tulips appear here and there.Far more than they do today, people were aware of the symbolism of individual flowers (the rose issacred to Venus), as well as their price (a tulip is more valuable and rare than a carnation)–but thesepaintings were not made for symbolic purposes; rather, they were (and still remain) exuberantexpressions of nature, and for those who owned them they represented a celebration of the floralworld within a domestic interior.