John T. Spike is a critic and art historian of international standing. In 1979 he was awarded a PhD by Harvard University, presenting a thesis on the seventeenth century painter Mattia Preti, to whom he has subsequently devoted numerous publications, including the catalogue raisonné of the paintings (1999) and Mattia Preti: The Collected Documents (1998). In recognition of his contribution to the studies regarding the artist, he was awarded honorary citizenship of Taverna, birthplace of Mattia Preti.

During his career, Spike has organized numerous exhibitions of Italian art and has spoken at conferences in leading museums and galleries throughout the world, including the Pinacoteca Nazionale de Bologna, the Galleria degli Uffizi and the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence, the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Palazzo Te in Mantua, the Pierpont Morgan Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, Palazzo Barberini in Rome, the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, the La Valletta National Museum of Fine Arts and the National Gallery of Art in Washington. He is a permanent consultant to two Italian museums, the Museo Civico of Taverna and the Museo Civico of Urbania, and of the Cathedral Museum of Mdina, Malta. He has accepted invitations to speak in public at the British Institute in Florence, Harvard University, Yale University and the University of Malta.

Since 1989, Spike has been the General Editor of Abaris Books, Norwalk, Connecticut, and has published The Illustrated Bartsch, a multiple volume compendium of the European prints made prior to 1750; he is also the author of four of the over ninety volumes published by Abaris Books.

As well as the catalogue raisonné of the paintings of Caravaggio (Abbeville Press, New York-Paris, 2001), Spike has recently published important books on the Florentine Renaissance: Masaccio (Abbeville Press, 1996), and Fra Angelico (Abbeville Press, 1997), that have also appeared in Italian and French (the second also being published in German by Hirmer Verlag). Fra Angelico was nominated "Art Book of the Year 1997" by the Hearst press in the United States.

As well as being the author of a great number of articles and reviews covering a vast range of themes for art periodicals such as The Burlington Magazine and Il giornale dell-arte, Spike is a permanent member of the international editorial boards of FMR and Studi di storia dell'arte. He is also a member of the jury for the Treviso Prize, one of the most prestigious Italian prizes devoted to creation and conservation within the ambit of culture. In 1998 he was awarded the Anthurium Prize, an annual Calabrian award for services to culture.

He has written essays on numerous contemporary artists that have been included in books and exhibition catalogues in New York and Italy. He was a member of the jury for the First Contemporary Art Biennial held in Florence in December 1997, and was subsequently nominated as the event's director.

Born in New York in 1951, John T. Spike has lived in Florence since 1989 with his wife Michèle and their son Nicholas.

This book devoted to the still life is without doubt different to many others that have preceded it. It has not been subdivided on the basis of schools or eras, but rather thematic groups and many of the pictures included here are previously unpublished. The pleasing of the senses is common to the numerous still-lifes analysed: we have chosen to present the details of the paintings in full page reproductions so as to draw attention to the values of Sight, Touch, Hearing, Taste and Smell.

Although the author has previously highlighted the difficulties inherent in attributing Italian still lifes in a book published in 1992, almost all the paintings presented here have found their correct paternity. 'The characters have found their author.'

In the section dedicated to The Rediscovery of Nature, Spike works on the principle that for the artists of the late sixteenth century such as Caravaggio (the heirs to Leonardo) 'picturing the world meant penetrating its inner workings.'

In the section dedicated to The Flavors of Nature, the author presents paintings depicting 'kitchens, markets and sideboards laden with fresh game and fish:' the painter also paints to whet the appetite.

In the section Nature in Flower, Spike instead notes that "the evanescent beauty of flowers has fascinated humanity throughout the ages," a fascination leading, in a parascientific key, to the production of illustrated herbals that are the direct predecessors of many still lifes.

In the section Nature's Harvest, Spike considers the problems of the seasons and how the painting that represents flowers and fruits refers to a precise moment in the year, almost as if it were a snapshot.

In the sections Nature Ennobled and The Mysteries of Nature the author investigates the hidden meanings behind these apparently straightforward and decorative pictures. The hidden sense is that of life and its transience.

The consultant to this collection, Paolo Sprovieri, has for decades been a dealer in modern art. He 'invented' Balla but also Masson, Turcato but also Burri and Afro. He has revisited forgotten values. His success (I also recall his work on Renaissance majolica) has represented 'resurrection' for many forgotten artists and sectors of art.

--Maurizio Fagiolo dell'Arco, contributor to The Sense of Pleasure