BASCHENIS, Evaristo
(b. 1617, Bergamo, d. 1677, Bergamo)

Kitchen Still-Life

1654-56
Oil on canvas, 73 x 97 cm
Private collection

This kitchen still-life depicts game (partridges, quails, pheasant, wild duck), chickens on a cutting board, urn, basket of biscuits, and casserole. Although the composition appears disordered, it is actually organized within a rigorous right-angled triangle formed by the vertical of the large terracotta urn supporting a basket of sweetmeats, the horizontal of the wildfowl laid out on the stone counter, and the ascending diagonal on the right.