This beautiful still life with a Caravaggesque flavor has reached the Civic Art Gallery of Forlì thanks to the legacy of Count Pietro Guarini. Initially referred to Paolo Antonio Barbieri, brother of Guercino, specialized in paintings of flowers, fruit and animals, it was then attributed to Guido Cagnacci. It is one of the most discussed "still lifes" in the history of art, whose authorship cannot be said to be convincingly concluded yet. Some experts, studying the botanical species represented in this painting (iris, white and purple gladioli, "stars of Bethlehem"), were able to affirm that the contemporaneity of the flowering and the consistency of the dimensions of the different flowers suggest that it may be one of the few cases of work created by the artist by copying the model from life (Signorini and Pacini, 2009; Benati, 2010).

Texts: Lorenza Montanari, Martina Neri - Museums Unit of the Municipality of Forlì