Bartolomeo Bettera
(Bergamo, 1639 - ca. 1699)
STILL LIFE WITH MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND A TERRESTIAL GLOBE
oil on canvas, 80.5x127 cm
NATURA MORTA CON STRUMENTI MUSICALI E MAPPAMONDO
olio su tela, cm 80,5x127
Literature
- Bartolomeo Bettera, exhibition catalogue (Bergamo, Palazzo Credito Bergamasco, 4 - 24 October 2008), edited by A. Cottino, Gorgonzola (MI) 2008, pp. 44-46.
The painting presented here, published in 2008, stands as one of the most complete and interesting examples of the work of the Bergamo-born artist Bartolomeo Bettera (1639–ca. 1699). Drawing on the artistic vision of Evaristo Baschenis, he developed a more personal style thanks to his travels to Rome and Milan.
The work, along with a few others, dates to his early years, between 1660 and 1670, a period when his paintings are rarer and for which we have fewer points of reference (Cottino 2008, p. 46).
In his publication, Cottino emphasizes that the painting, along with a small group of others, constitutes a “milestone in Bettera’s oeuvre: here he [Bettera] asserts his own style by dispelling the ever-looming shadows of Baschi through a new way of casting light on musical instruments that were almost foreign to the master’s palette” (Cottino 2008, p. 46).