Still Life with Dog and Fruit, Cristoforo Monari

Artwork Overview

Cristoforo Monari, Still Life with Dog and Fruit
Cristoforo Monari, Still Life with Dog and Fruit
Cristoforo Monari
Still Life with Dog and Fruit
late 1600s–early 1700s
Cristoforo Monari, artist
1667–1720
Still Life with Dog and Fruit, late 1600s–early 1700s
Where object was made: Italy
Material/technique: oil; canvas
Dimensions:
Canvas/Support (Height x Width x Depth): 134.6 x 96.5 cm
Canvas/Support (Height x Width x Depth): 53 x 38 in
Credit line: Museum purchase: Patrons and Benefactors Fund
Accession number: 1970.0033
Not on display
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Images

Label texts

Exhibition Label:
"Empire of Things," 2013, Kate Meyer
Cristoforo Monari produced grandly scaled paintings depicting a wealth of precious objects from near and far. Well-suited to the elegant apartments of his patrons, the canvases decorated living spaces along with other fine objects meant to attest to the owner’s affluence and social status. This example illustrates the market demand for paintings juxtaposing natural elements with objects from distant locations and cultures: oranges and lemons from the Mediterranean, porcelain from China, Netherlandish replications of blue and white vessels of the Far East, rust-colored pottery from Mexico or the Iberian Peninsula. A single still-life could function in the place of several objects. The collection of those objects in paint reflected the owner’s appetite for refined and worldly items. Gazing sleepily from under the table, the dog invites the viewer to partake in the food and wine, which delight the senses though their skillful rendering.

Exhibitions

Cristoforo Munari (1667-1720): A master of still life (Cristoforo Munari: Un maestro della natur morta) (Cristoforo Munari and His Environment)
1999
Empire of Things
Kris Ercums, curator
Kate Meyer, curator
2013–2015
Google Art Project
2016
Empire of Things
Kris Ercums, curator
Kate Meyer, curator
2016–2021
Spencer Kids: Animal Tails (with audio descriptions)
2018
From the Collection of the University of Kansas
1971
Spencer Kids: Animal Tails (with audio descriptions)
2020

Resources

Audio

Art Minute with David Cateforis
Didactic – Art Minute
Art Minute with David Cateforis
Didactic – Art Minute
Episode 110. I’m David Cateforis with another Art Minute from the Spencer Museum of Art. The Spencer collection features a large still-life by Cristoforo Munari, a painter working in Rome at the turn of the eighteenth century. Munari presents the viewer with a profusion of objects, artfully arranged in a fashion reminiscent of seventeenth-century Dutch still lifes. Oranges, lemons, and a porcelain bowl fill a pewter platter set atop a chunk of a classical cornice decorated with an egg and dart motif. Glass and metal vessels, a platter overflowing with crawfish, and a draped purple cloth further populate the picture, while a dog sleepily stares at the viewer from the lower right corner of the painting. Munari primarily worked in Italy, though his style shows the influence of a wide array of European painters. Like many Dutch and German artists, Munari paints in a fine manner, carefully delineating the texture of a lemon peel in such a highly naturalistic manner that it seems almost tangible. Further, the work shows the influence of Italian and Spanish artists in the strong contrast of light and dark, known as tenebrism, and in the use of a bit of classical architecture as a table for the still-life objects. With thanks to Ellen O’Neil Rife for her text, from the Spencer Museum of Art, I’m David Cateforis.
Bulldog Art Tour 2009: Emily Sadosky
Audio Tour – Bulldog Podcast
Bulldog Art Tour 2009: Emily Sadosky
Audio Tour – Bulldog Podcast
Listen to core object information.
Audio Description
Listen to core object information.
Audio Description
The artist is Christoforo Monari, born 1667 in Reggio Emilia, Present day Italy, died Pisa, present day Italy. The title of the work is Still Life with Dog and Fruit, created in the late 1600s to the early 1700s. The work is made with oil on canvas.
Listen to Audio Description
Audio Description
Listen to Audio Description
Audio Description
Still Life with Dog and Fruit is a painting about four and half feet tall and three feet wide. It shows a table strewn with lemons and oranges in metal and ceramic dishes on a table. Several lemons have been cut, exposing thick white rind around greenish flesh. Several pieces of peel lie beside the platter. Some lemons and an orange still have their leaves attached. Next to the tray of fruit is a metal dish holding bright reddish-orange shellfish, possibly prawns. A crystal wine glass with an elaborate stem holds a pale liquid and gleams behind the prawns. Also on the table is a variety of serving dishes and storage jars. A white cloth is crumpled between them. Two terracotta jug-like vessels sit in shadow behind the fruit, and a Chinese porcelain bowl with white and blue decoration cradles one of the lemons. Beside the table, an open wine bottle rests in a wooden bucket, wrapped in a cloth. At the lower right corner of the scene, a black and white dog is lying with its chin on its paws, mostly in shadow under the table. The dog looks up, seemingly right at the viewer.
Listen to Label Text
Audio Description
Listen to Label Text
Audio Description
Monari produced grandly scaled paintings depicting a wealth of precious objects from near and far. Well-suited to the elegant apartments of his patrons, the canvases decorated living spaces along with other fine objects meant to attest to the owner’s affluence and social status. This example illustrates the market demand for paintings juxtaposing natural elements with objects from distant locations and cultures: oranges and lemons from the Mediterranean, porcelain from China, Netherlandish replications of blue and white vessels of the Far East, rust-colored pottery from Mexico or the Iberian Peninsula. A single still life could function in the place of several objects. The collection of those objects in paint reflected the owner’s appetite for refined and worldly items. Gazing sleepily from under the table, the dog invites the viewer to partake in the food and wine, which delight the senses through their skillful rendering.
Listen to App Text
Audio Description
Listen to App Text
Audio Description
Take a minute to think quietly about this painting. There is a lot to notice. What do you think the dog is thinking? Paintings like this one that show an arrangement of objects are called “still life,” because they usually don’t have anything in them that can move. This one is an exception! About the art This painting shows objects from all over the world together in one place. There are oranges and lemons from countries around the Mediterranean Sea. There are blue and white dishes that were made in Northern Europe but were inspired by dishes that were made in China. There is also terracotta pottery from Spain or Mexico. About the animal The dog in this painting is similar to several kinds of European sheepdogs that were used to herd sheep up into the mountains during the summer and into the lower valleys in the winter.

Links

See a photo of a sheepdog similar to this one