Signed with the monogram G.D.V in the center right, on a majolica vase

The apothecary in his laboratory

Oil on canvas, 73 x 66 cm

In gilded and lacquered frame cm. 80 x 86

This work, depicting a fascinating laboratory interior with a pharmacist busy in the preparation of medicines, is part of the typical production of the Roman Gian Domenico Valentini, also known as Giovanni Domenico Valentino (Rome 1630 - Imola 1708).

The canvas, which is signed with the monogram G.D.V in the center right on a majolica vase, should have been painted in Rome, where the painter worked from 1662 until his death, except in

1680-1681, when he worked in Imola and Ravenna.

The use of models by Flemish artists who populated the Eternal City appears essential in the development of Valentini's painting.

The use of Nordic models in the development of this type of pictorial genre, with interior scenes and elements of still life, had gained great fortune with the Roman client, leading to an almost serial production, but always of great evocative charm. .

Giovanni Domenico Valentini distinguished himself in the artistic panorama of the Italian seventeenth century precisely for the peculiarity of his favorite subjects: they are mainly kitchen interiors or as in our case of a laboratory, where countless objects are piled up arranged in picturesque disorder: here the tools of a pharmacy, in copper and terracotta, vases or pourers in metal and clay, jars and albarelli in majolica, bottles, flasks, glasses, cauldrons, basins and other containers in copper and terracotta, as well as an open oven.

The large background wall is occupied by an angular hanging shelf for jars and apothecary jars all arranged in a row, in the foreground the still life featured various pharmaceutical tools such as apothecary bottles, mortar bowls, jars and jars with handles as well as pots and copper vessels. Particularly striking from a chromatic point of view, and a typical piece of furniture of the painter, is the painting above the door frame, which depicts a landscape.

The interiors of the Valentini, of which our painting is a valuable example, which display large quantities of objects or furnishings, are arranged with a wisely studied organization: the whole represented is arranged according to the dictates of a pre-ordered exhibition and appears so to speak 'on display', exhibited and organized according to the very personal intent of a painter who aims to ennoble everyday life and make it the emblem of his art.

The interior of our pharmacy is very similar to a monogrammed version kept in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Palais Fesch, in Ajaccio (inv. 852-1-461) depicting a 'Young man visiting a pharmacy', in which the same elements, albeit varied: the half-open wardrobe, the charcoal, the basin, the pharmaceutical flasks and jars, the shelves and the portrait above the door.

Other similar compositions:

- Auction Finarte, Rome 8 May 1990, Giovanni Domenico Valentino, Pharmacy Interior:

http:
http://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/scheda/opera/93060/Valentino%20Giovan%20Domenico%2C%20Intern...

- Cassa di Risparmio di Imola Foundation, Imola (Emilia Romagna, Italy), Giovanni Domenico Valentino, Pharmacy interior: http://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/entry/work/93056/Valentino%20Giovan%20Domenico%2C%20Interno%...

- Palais Fesch Musée des beaux-arts (France), Giovanni Domenico Valentino, Pharmacy interior:

- Pandolfini Florence, Important Old Paintings 19 April 2016, Giovanni Domenico Valentino, Pharmacy Interior: https://www.pandolfini.it/it/asta-0170/giovanni-domenico-valentinoand.asp