Balthasar van der Ast

Middelburg 1593/94 – 1657 Delft

A Still Life with a Basket of Flowers, Fruit and Shells

Signed lower left: .B. . vander . ast ..
Oil on panel, 14½ x 26¾ ins. (37 x 68 cm)
CS0397 

Provenance

Orazio Canossa (d. 1673), Palazzo Canossa, Mantua, recorded in the inventory of his collection dated 15 May 1673, as hanging in one of a sequence of rooms towards the court: “Un quadretino bislongo su l’asse con cornice di pero nero sopra del quale vi sono dipinti varii fiori et fruti di mano del Vander fiamengo con zendalina verde da coprirlo vechia e rotta con bachetta di ferro”. 
By inheritance to his brother Luigi Canossa (c. 1629-1681), Verona
Possibly the work record in the posthumous inventory of Luigi Canossa’s paintings dated 11 August 1687, as hanging in the third room facing the River Adige, under no. 297: “uno detto frutere et fiori”
Then by family descent, recorded in the inventory of the Canossa collection dated 18 September 1781, as hanging in the first room of the Gallery, facing the River Adige: “N. 44.  Un quadro fiori in asse di B. Vanderast”; and still in the collection in 2001
With Quadrifolio, Milan, 2005
With Johnny Van Haeften Limited, London, 2005
Private collection, England, (2005-2022)


Literature

A. Avena, ‘La Galleria Canossa nel 1781’, Madonna Verona, VII, 1913, p. 101, no. 44U. Meroni (ed.), Lettere e altri documenti intorno alla storia della pittura.  Raccolte di quadri a Montova nel sei-settecento.  Galleriea Gonzaga del ramo principale.  Galleria Gonzaga del ramo de Vescovado.  Galleria Canossa, Monzambano 1976, p. 88 (incorrectly refers to the inventory citation to Pieter van Laer)M. S. Tisato Premi, “I Canossa collezionisti di quadri secondo un ineditio inventario del secolo XVII”, Studi Storici Veronesi Luigi Simeoni, XXVII-XXIX, 1978-79, p. 157F.  Rossi, Mill’altre maraviglie ristrette in angustissimo spacio: un repertorio dell’arte fiamminga e olandese a Verona tra Cinque e Secento, Venice 2001, pp. 123, 177, reproduced in colour on p. 181, fig. 71 and pp. 182-83, figs. 71a and 71b (details) and on the cover.