Increasingly valued for the splendid series of works he made during the second and very nearly the third quarter of Spain’s Siglo de Oro, Antonio Ponce was from the generation after Van der Hamen. In fact, he was a relative of the elder painter, as well as his apprentice, which further reinforced his dependence.

Like his peers, he responded to the demand for works pertaining to specific subgenres of the still life, painting flower arrangements, and also garlands of flowers that frame a great variety of figurative scenes, mostly religious in nature. Of course he also took an interest in representing various types of food, especially fruits and vegetables, which often take the leading role in still lifes with a rich variety of motives presented in complex but highly attractive compositions.

Here, he draws the eye into a small canvas with a highly expressive presentation of fruit on a surface seen from above. Several pomegranates form a compact group whose distinctive characteristics and tactile qualities are skillfully rendered to produce a perfect sense of volume. The reflection of the fruit’s shiny surfaces conveys the textures and solid presence of these pieces, including their weight. It is as though the artist were offering them for sale at one of the markets then popular at the court in Madrid (Text drawn from Luna, J. J.: El bodegón español en el Prado. De Van der Hamen a Goya, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2008, p. 72).