Natura morta con melograni, zucca e pere

This “Still life with pomegranates, squash and pears” typifies the painting of Gregor Sciltian. The fruits that act, as it were, as the protagonists are most elegantly displayed, alongside a white cloth flowing towards the lower portion of the canvas. The pieces of fruit stand out between the surface on which they rest and the rear wall, above which a drape frames them like a triumphal arch. The effect is scenic, the minute faithfulness to life is exalted and organized in such a way as to save the work utterly from any likening to a snapshot. Nothing here is fleeting, all is frozen in a sort of monumental solemnity, outside of chronicle and outside of time. Keeping well away from the pre-Raphaelite models favoured by most of the other followers of the interwar “return to order”, Sciltian’s painting was a spectacular blend of Caravaggism and Mannerism.