This canvas with clearly defined characteristics is paired with another work at the Museo del Prado (P7912) whose shared circumstances help us to appreciate Hiepes’s achievements even more -especially his capacity to reflect the infinite aesthetic possibilities offered by the subject matter associated with still lifes. That second work was signed and dated in 1643, which allows us to assign a similar date to the present work.

As the genre evolved, flower paintings rapidly made a place for themselves, as their ornamental character and intrinsic beauty took precedence over many other aspects. Among Spanish painters, it was Hiepes whose gradual specialization in this field led to the most assiduous production of unmistakable works with a personality totally unlike those of any other artist of that time.

These monumental and symmetrical compositions convey the individual spirit of each of the species of flowers depicted with all their powerful particularities. In the present work, like many others by his hand, no less than twenty-six different varieties have been identified, making this an authentic repertoire of plant species that serves both to decorate and illustrate. Hiepes’s works frequently use contrasts for dynamic purposes. Here, for example, a diversified group of flowers with varied colors and splendid lighting is set against a dark, neutral background over a straightforward base consisting of a simple plank or wooden table with a minimum of detail. And the contrasts do not end there, as the flowers themselves dialog with the ceramic vase whose decorations include bronze appliqués and a depiction of a chariot on its curved surface, deliberately evoking Classical Antiquity in a singularly refined manner (Text from Luna, J. J.: El bodegón español en el Prado. De Van der Hamen a Goya, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2008, p. 78).