A Cat Stealing Fish

A Cat Stealing Fish

A Cat Stealing Fish 

A Cat Stealing Fish was painted by Giuseppe Recco between 1667 and 1669. This painting displays Giuseppe’s immense talent at rendering dimly lit spaces and reflections of surfaces and textures within the space. This work is an oil painting on a canvas measuring 96.5 by 128.3 centimeters. The painting depicts a cat caught in the middle of taking an octopus tentacle away in its mouth. The cat is crouching on a crate surrounded by various fish and hammered copper wares that appear to have been pushed to the ground by the cat. The scene appears to be in a dark alleyway or interior room, with sharp lighting focusing on the cat. The lighting in the painting shows off Recco’s ability to realistically render a number of surfaces, including the iridescent scales of the fish and the metallic surfaces of the hammered copper illuminated in the dark scene. A Cat Stealing Fish demonstrates Recco’s skillful painting technique representative of Neapolitan still-life painting during the Baroque period. Furthermore, Recco painted the seaweed in the lower left corner of the painting into the shape of his initials (G R). 

A Cat Stealing Fish 

A Cat Stealing Fish was painted by Giuseppe Recco between 1667 and 1669. This painting displays Giuseppe’s immense talent at rendering dimly lit spaces and reflections of surfaces and textures within the space. This work is an oil painting on a canvas measuring 96.5 by 128.3 centimeters. The painting depicts a cat caught in the middle of taking an octopus tentacle away in its mouth. The cat is crouching on a crate surrounded by various fish and hammered copper wares that appear to have been pushed to the ground by the cat. The scene appears to be in a dark alleyway or interior room, with sharp lighting focusing on the cat. The lighting in the painting shows off Recco’s ability to realistically render a number of surfaces, including the iridescent scales of the fish and the metallic surfaces of the hammered copper illuminated in the dark scene. A Cat Stealing Fish demonstrates Recco’s skillful painting technique representative of Neapolitan still-life painting during the Baroque period. Furthermore, Recco painted the seaweed in the lower left corner of the painting into the shape of his initials (G R). 

Giuseppe Recco

Works Cited

1. Forgione, Gianluca. “Giuseppe Recco.” Essay. In Dizionario Biografico Degli Italiani 86, 86:690–93. Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 2016.

2. “Giuseppe Recco - A Cat Stealing Fish.” Metmuseum.org. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Accessed October 13, 2021. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437376.

3. Causa, Raffaello. La Natura Morta a Napoli Nel Sei e Nel Settecento. 5. Vol. 5. Storia Di Napoli. Napoli, Italia: Società editrice storia di Napoli, 1969. 

4. Damian Véronique. “Giovan Battista Recco.” Essay. In L'œil Gourmand: A Journey through Neapolitan Still Life of the 17th Century: Paris, Galerie Canesso, 26 September - 27 October 2007, 34–35. Paris, France: Galerie Canesso, 2007. 

5. Damian Véronique and Claudia Salvi. “Giuseppe Recco.” Essay. In L'œil Gourmand: A Journey through Neapolitan Still Life of the 17th Century: Paris, Galerie Canesso, 26 September - 27 October 2007, 80-81. Paris, France: Galerie Canesso, 2007

6. Damian Véronique and Claudia Salvi. “Giuseppe Recco.” Essay. In L'œil Gourmand: A Journey through Neapolitan Still Life of the 17th Century: Paris, Galerie Canesso, 26 September - 27 October 2007, 80-81. Paris, France: Galerie Canesso, 2007

7. Marshall, Christopher. “More Beautiful than Nature Itself: The Early Commercial and Critical Fortunes of Neapolitan Baroque Still-Life Painting.” Open Arts Journal 2017-18, no. 6 (2018). https://doi.org/10.5456/issn.2050-3679/2018w07.

8. Damian Véronique and Claudia Salvi. “Giuseppe Recco.” Essay. In L'œil Gourmand: A Journey through Neapolitan Still Life of the 17th Century: Paris, Galerie Canesso, 26 September - 27 October 2007, 80-81. Paris, France: Galerie Canesso, 2007

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Artist: Giuseppe Recco (Italian, Neapolitan, 1634-1695). A Cat Stealing Fish. Images, n.d. https://jstor.org/stable/community.18615314.

circa 1667-1669

Kayla Marr

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Purchase, 1871
71.17

96.5 x 128.3 cm

Painting; oil on canvas

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028

Painting; oil on canvas

96.5 x 128.3 cm