STILL LIFE IN EMILIA AND IN ROMAGNA (text page)
While being able to boast the important 16th-century precedent of the naturalistic studies by Ulisse Aldrovandi, 17th-century Bolognese painting accepted still life above all thanks to the activity of two artists who were not Bolognese as far as their training was concerned. Paolo Antonio Barbieri, Guercino's brother, spent his entire life at Cento, in the province of Emilia. To him is owed the main contribution to the naturalistic tendency in which Caravaggio-like and Spanish references were reflected in a peasant reality, of a humble and unassuming poetry. On the contrary, in Emilia, Pier Francesco Cittadini proposed a model of luxurious still lifes made precious by the spectacular insertion of refined objects, musical instruments, and magnificent floral compositions. The artists operating within the framework of the court of the Farnese family (Bartolomeo Arbotori, Felice Boselli) dedicated themselves to a rustic taste, to kitchens and to pantries, while a point of refined equilibrium was attained on the threshold of the 18th century by Cristoforo Munari, a painter from Reggia. He was as effective in popular-type compositions with food and simple kitchen tools as he was in sumptuous paintings in which crystal and porcelain, musical instruments, books, and precious objects appeared. Munari was in contact with the Florentine milieu, as was the most important and eclectic Bolognese painter of the period, Giuseppe Maria Crespi.