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While it is not listed in any known inventory, this canvas´s provenience from the convent of Los Carmelitas Descalzos in Toledo is certain, as it was coupled there with Saint Joseph with the Christ Child Sleeping in his Arms (P5170), which has the same dimensions, is dated the same year, and presents a complementary subject. The fact that the Virgin appears as a girl dressed in the Carmelite
When describing the work of this prolific painter of still lifes, it is frequently said that Luis Meléndez included only commonplace objects in his canvases; this painting, in fact, offers the exception that proves the rule. Amid the various objects represented here are a porcelain cup and large saucer, or plate, which seem to be East Asian rather than Spanish. Indeed, they may be Cantonese
Sobre una tosca mesa de madera, descrita táctilmente con los pequeños detalles de la calidad del material, visibles en nudos y muescas, aparecen desordenadamente situadas unas cuantas “peritas de San Juan” y un pan en segundo término, junto al cual se eleva una alcarraza de loza muy blanca que bien pudiera ser andaluza. Se denomina popularmente “jarra de cuatro picos” y muestra una decoración de i
Humanity´s rebirth after the flood is represented in Greek mythology through the story of Deucalion and Pyrrha. After surviving the disaster, they threw stones over their shoulders, each of which became a new being. This story is told by the classical poet, Ovid, in his Metamorphoses. This painting is a sketch by Rubens for a painting —now lost— by Jan Cossiers for the Torre de la Parada. Rubens w
Luis Meléndez distinguished himself as the greatest bodegón, or still-life, painter in late eighteenth-century Spain. By this time, the popularity of the genre had declined in Spain and was not practiced by any of Meléndez’ contemporaries at court. Even so, Meléndez painted over one hundred bodegones in his lifetime, leading art historians to infer that he took a person
In 1724, Antonio Palomino, who had been Juan Carreño de Miranda’s disciple, included his teacher’s biography in his Parnaso español pintoresco y laureado. Their close relationship makes that text a highly informative source of first-hand information. Palomino wrote: Two other works by his hand (though early) are the paintings on the facing side walls of the church of El Caballero de
The painting belongs to the type of still life designated by Vroom as monochrome banketjes, pieces first executed by Heda towards the end of the 1620s that became very popular in the Netherlands and abroad, as illustrated by the fact that there were two in the inventory of Rubens´s property. There are sufficient grounds to interpret these compositions as moralising, religious or allegorical works.
An equestrian portrait of a picador, wearing a short bullfighting suit and hat and carrying a long pike. The background is a landscape with a river. X-rays of this work show that this picador is painted over an equestrian portrait of Manuel Godoy, who wears the sash of the Order of Carlos III, which he received in 1791, and the three-cornered hat of Commander of the Lifeguards, a title he received
Two splendid sea breams play the leading role here. They are surrounded by lesser motifs, including oranges, a kitchen towel, a head of garlic, and packet of what is probably spice, two terracotta bowls from Alcorcón, a long-handled pan, a mortar whose pestle leans into the background, and a cruet that participates in this work’s careful study of light as a means of defining volumes, divers
Herod and Herodias appear at the right of the composition. Sitting at a table painted in foreshortened perspective, they look on—the king with a stupefied expression—as Salome presents them with the payment for her dance: John the Baptist’s head on a platter(Mark, 6 21-29). The skillfully lit architectural background clearly recalls Venice. The other figures in the scene are standing, which contri
Ferdinand III bears a sword and the globe of the world in his hands while the kneeling Moorish king presents him the keys to the city, visible in the background. A lion appears on the left, and each king is flanked by his respective retinue. The Museo del Prado’s 1920 catalog attributed this painting to Amigoni (following the 1794 palace inventory) but it is actually a sketch for a painting by Fli
Inside a room, a young man is copying a classical bust by candlelight. Since 1910 this work appears in the Museo del Prado catalogues as signed and dated on the lower left angle (G. J. Palthe f. 1732), but there is no longer any evidence of this. The scene is typical of the kind painted by Godfried Schalcken (P2078), of whom Palthe was a follower. The young man, the bust and the candle also crop u
Meléndez has managed to integrate different fruits in a disordered thematic association that combines open pomegranates -showing the richness of their transparent seeds- with grapes, elongated apples and haws. The composition is structured in an original manner: the base is the smooth surface of a stone with irregular edges. The setting is a landscape with trees in semi-darkness silhouetted
En este bodegón los alimentos están dispuestos en primer término: un plato con acerolas, cuyos fuertes matices rojos atraen la vista hacia el centro de la escena, acompañado, a un lado, por manzanas y una pera, y, al otro, por un gran queso blando. Los otros elementos de la composición son distintos recipientes, como dos tarros de miel de diferentes tipos de cerámica, tapados con papel, una frasca
An angel appears to Saint Joseph in his sleep, pointing to the dove of the Holy Ghost as the heavens open in a luminous burst of glory. Under the dove, a group of angels carry a mirror and flowers alluding to the fact that Mary remains a virgin despite her pregnancy. On a mat alongside the saint, we see an adze, a hand drill and other carpentry tools.Saint Joseph’s Dream was a relatively frequent
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