Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
Flowers by a Pond with Frogs
(Baroque Europe )
This intriguing close-up of beautiful flowers, frogs, and insects is presented from what seems like the low viewing angle of an avid naturalist searching for specimens in the underbrush on the edge of an upland meadow. However, the knowledgeable viewer would delight in recognizing that this is a fantasy. Tulips were expensive, carefully cultivated flowers that were only to be found in well-tended gardens.
Recco was the foremost painter of still lifes in 17th-century Naples. His works reveal the influence of Dutch painters working in Italy who introduced such "underbrush" subjects. The artist's signature is hidden among the greenery.
For more information on this painting, please see Federico Zeri's 1976 catalogue no. 345, p. 468.
Inscription
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.
Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [1881 catalogue: no. 227; 1897 catalogue: no. 473]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Exhibitions
| 2019-2021 | Excursions through the Collection: Portraiture, Adornment, and the Natural World. |
| 2012 | Public Property. |
| 1971-1972 | World of Wonder. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. |
Conservation
| Date | Description | Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| 3/14/1984 | Examination | examined for condition |
Geographies
Italy, Naples (Place of Origin)
Measurements
Painted surface H excluding modern strips at top and bottom: 16 7/16 x W: 31 7/8 x D: 3/4 in. (41.7 x 81 x 1.9 cm); Framed H: 22 1/4 x W: 37 5/8 in. (56.52 x 95.57 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902
Location in Museum
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
37.1856