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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
Luis de Carvajal was a Toledan painter who trained in Rome and subsequently at El Escorial, a flourishing centre for Spanish painting in the first half of the seventeenth century. The manner in which the penitent Magdalen’s figure is bathed in light emphasises her sensual body. The visual potency of the Italian Renaissance formulas on which this work is based ensured their survival during the Baro
This highly original still life presents various oysters in the fore and middle grounds—a relatively infrequent element in Meléndez’s paintings. The foreground is completed by some cloves of garlic and a decorated ceramic plate, probably from Talavera. Behind them, the powerful volume of an enormous copper pot vies for the leading role in this composition. It is tilted, as one edge rests on
This is a singular example of David Teniers´ indoor scenes. The kitchen or tavern utensils so common in his other works are completed here with a magnificent show of diverse fruit and vegetables. This converts the right part of the composition into a still life. On the left, a character shells mussels, a traditional foodstuff in the Low Countries, while another group works beside the fireplace. Th
A male figure smokes and drinks, directing an expressive glace at the viewer. Behind him, a companion is inside a tavern filled with vats, basins and barrels. The protagonist has been identified as a soldier on leave after a campaign, but this is also a representation of everyday life in Flanders. Illustrations of people enjoying the pleasures of alcohol or tobacco were quite customary in the work
Traditionally identified as the woman who was a sinner and wept on Christ’s feet and wiped away her tears with her hair (Luke 7:36-50), Mary Magdalene is shown here as the hermit saint she became upon giving up her life of moral decadence, after her encounter with the Savior. She kneels in prayer at the entrance to her cave and raises her eyes to heaven, eyes that are perhaps disproportionately la
The Triptych in the Museo del Prado labeled as Scenes from the Life of Christ is a pivotal work in the story of Valencian painting in the fifteenth century and in the transmission of the style and technique of Jan van Eyck to the Iberian Peninsula. The panel entered the Prado collection in 1931 from the convent of the Encarnación in Valencia, a Carmelite foundation established in 1502. It w
This work and its pair, A Saxon Villager Driving a Barrel with a Wheelbarrow (P2271), may have been gifts sent by the Elector of Saxony, Augustus III, to his daughter, Queen Maria Amalia, and his son-in-law, Charles of Bourbon. This eighteenth-century taste for popular scenes is reflected in several of the monarch’s commissions, such as those for the tapestries of José del Castillo, Bayeu a
Some limes, laid out with the artist's habitual disorder, occupy almost half the canvas. Behind them, a honey pot of the popular green-glazed type from Biar or Lucena shows the painter's eye for detail. In the background, a box of jelly lies open on a castañuela plate. Behind it, a silver or pewter saucer holds a Tonalá type Mexican ceramic cup. The butterfly hovering over it all is interesting fo
The saint’s figure, with long blond tresses, occupies the center of the scene. Gazing at the heavens, she crosses her hands across her bosom in prayer. Her worn clothing is enveloped in large floating robes whose movement is decidedly diagonal, and the cloud on which she kneels is carried towards Heaven by Coello’s customary cherubs. Some hold the attributes that always accompany her when she is r
This attractive and singular mid-17th-century Spanish still life was originally thought to be by Antonio de Pereda, due to its similarity to two canvases at the Museo de Arte Antiga in Lisbon, which he signed and dated in 1651. However, notwithstanding its approximate resemblance to Pereda’s creations, a convincing attribution has yet to be encountered. Foodstuffs and utensils are scattered in com
Painted in Seville in 1619, The Adoration of the Magi is the largest of Velázquez`s early works and, together with Saint Ildefonso receiving the Chasuble, the one with the most figures, making it one of the artist`s most ambitious compositions to date in his career. Both the above characteristics suggests that it was painted for a religious interior, very probably one associated with the Je
The pendant of Country Wedding (P01441) shows the banquet that follows the wedding procession. The bride sits under a straw canopy at the center of the scene, which Brueghel sets under four leafy trees, revealing the great importance he gave to landscapes. The presence of the Archduke Alberto de Austria and the Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia, then governors of the Low Countries, makes this work an i
The Descent from the Cross was painted for the Chapel of Our Lady Outside the Walls at Leuven, which was founded in the fourteenth century by the Great Crossbowmen`s Guild, sold in 1798 and demolished soon afterwards. The two small crossbows that hang from the tracery in the corners of the panel indicate that it was commissioned by that guild. The earliest datable copy, the Edelheere Triptych of 1
Forma parte de la serie de bodegones reunidos por el futuro Carlos IV de España y María Luisa de Borbón-Parma cuando aún eran príncipes de Asturias, para su Gabinete de Historia Natural del Palacio Real de Madrid. La documentación no llega a ponerse de acuerdo en la cantidad de obras realizadas por Meléndez para esta serie, barajándose un número entre treinta y siete y cuarenta y cinco pinturas. E
