1600–1700

These are probably allegories of speed and calmness represented by the pike, which moves fast, and the carp, which is slow.
The style of both still lifes, which were undoubtedly painted as companion pieces, is reminiscent of some of Sebastian Stoskopff's works (see, for example, the signed picture in the Jouffroy collection in Montbéliard). The typical chiaroscuro also brings this artist to mind, although the quality of the treatment does not reach his usual precision and love of detail. That both pictures come from the French-Flemish-German cultural area is indicated by some of the objects which are arranged on the two stone tables: in the picture Cat. No. 91 are a plaited loaf and a beer jug; in the picture Cat. No. 92 a pewter pot with a screw top (sechsseitige Schraubflasche).

The artist who painted these important works will probably have to be sought in the hitherto little-known circle of Stoskopff's pupils and imitators – compare for example Nichon or Michon (it could be Antoine Michon), who signed a copy after Stoskopff which is kept in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (Massachusetts, USA); compare also the Still Life with Fish and Onions, 78 x 100 cm, which was on sale at Sotheby's in Munich on 6 December 1991, No. 247 (as a work by Pierre Boucle).

Restored: 1980, Štefan Hauko.
Provenance: LBG, Graz, No. 237 and 238, until 1903, when the paintings were transferred to Rogaška Slatina to decorate the rooms of the spa; the Narodna galerija, Ljubljana, received the paintings in 1932, old Inv. Nos. 417 and 418 (17C).
Exhibitions: 1983, Ljubljana, No. 96; 1989, Ljubljana, No. 46.
Lit.: Zeri [& Rozman] 1983, p. 165, Cat. and Fig. No. 96; Zeri and Rozman 1989, pp. 141–142, Cat. No. 46, Fig. 45; Hahn-Woernle 1996, p. 283, Fig. A20.2 (influences of Italian and Austrian still life, second half 17C).