Bunches of Grapes, Pomegranates and Figs in a Landscape

Abraham Brueghel (Antwerp 1631 - Naples 1697)

Abraham Brueghel, a still life painter active chiefly in Rome and Naples, was born in Antwerp, the second son of Jan Brueghel II (see biography under SK-A-3027) and Anna Maria Janssens, and baptized on 28 November 1631.² He was presumably trained by his father, but no record of his activity in his native city has been found.³ He is next documented as living in Rome in 1659,⁴ but he may by then have been in Italy for over ten years, most likely in Sicily,⁵ perhaps taking advantage of contacts his father had made as a young man.⁶ Brueghel is subsequently recorded in Rome until 1675,⁷ marrying by 1668,⁸ and becoming a member of the Accademia di San Luca in 1670⁹ and of the Congregazione dei Virtuosi del Pantheon in 1671.¹⁰ He was nicknamed ‘Rhijngraf’ by the Bentveughels, the society of mostly Dutch and Flemish artists active in Rome.¹¹ During his Roman sojourn, Brueghel may have visited Messina on perhaps two occasions, on one of which he also visited Naples,¹² where he had settled by June 1675 when a son was born to him there.¹³ His most notable commission in Naples came from Luca Giordano (1634-1705), the leading artist in the city, to participate in the decorations for Corpus Domini in 1684.¹⁴ While Laureati¹⁵ points to Brueghel’s prominence as a still-life painter in Rome – and his correspondence with the important Messinese maecenas Don Antonio Ruffo (1610-1678) well illustrates his activity there¹⁶ – she indicates a decline in his artistic activity during his years in Naples. However, several Neapolitan collectors of his work are recorded¹⁷ and the biographer of Neapolitan painters, Bernardo de Dominici (1683-c. 1754), admired him.¹⁸

The 1684 decorations were made in collaboration with Paolo de Matteis (1662-1728) and the still-life painter Giovanni Battista Ruoppolo (1629-1693); earlier in Rome, Brueghel had often collaborated with figure painters, for instance, Giacinto Brandi (1621-1691), Guglielmo Cortese (1628-1679), Giovanni Battista Gaulli (1639-1704) and Carlo Maratta (1625-1713).¹⁹ A still life with figures by Maratta was already in the prestigious Anthoine collection in Antwerp by 1691,²⁰ six years before the artist’s death in Naples on 21 November 1697.²¹

REFERENCES
B. de Dominici, Vite de’ Pittori, Scultori ed Architetti Napoletani, [1840-46], 2 vols., eds. F. Sricchia Santoro and A. Zezza, Naples 2008; V. Ruffo, ‘Galleria Ruffo nel secolo XVII in Messina’, Bolletino d’Arte 10 (1916); U. Prota-Giurleo, Pittori Napoletani del Seicento, Naples [1953]; Laureati in F. Porzio (ed.), La natura morta in Italia, 2 vols., Milan 1989; G. Bocchi and U. Bocchi, Pittori di natura morta a Roma: Artisti stranieri, 1630-1750, Viadana [2004]