Maestro della Fertilità dell'Uovo

Maestro della Fertilità dell'Uovo or Master of the Fertility of the Egg is the name given to a yet to be identified painter active in the second half of the 17th and early 18th century in Brescia.

[1] The art historian Mariolina Olivera was the first to isolate a group of works by this master in her 1990 monograph Faustino Bocchi e l'arte di figurar pigmei.

Some art historians have suggested he was Bernardino Dehò (1675-1717) from Cremona while others have pointed at Angelo Esseradts, known as 'il Fiammingo' (the Fleming), whose name was also Italianised as Everardi.

Of a pair of paintings sold at Sotheby’s (27–29 January 2005, New York, lot 369A) one is inscribed Son Capporal Dei Matti Ch osseruo beni patti (I am corporal of the fools that well observes the rules) while the other is inscribed Assai Ben Balla A chi fortuna Suona (He dances well enough who fortune plays for).

The work contains the artist's trademark assemblage of fantastical figures, each apparently representing a failed attempt to explain the world through astrology or mysticism.