Roses, clematis, a tulip and other flowers in a glass vase on a wooden ledge with a butterfly

The leading flower painter in seventeenth century Spain, Juan de Arellano actually trained as a figurative painter in the studio of Juan de Solís in Madrid, not taking up still-life painting until his thirties. He did so having been inspired by the work of the leading Flemish and Italian flower painters that became popular in Madrid in the middle of the century; in particular Mario Nuzzi, whose work we know Arellano admired and copied, and Daniel Seghers. The present composition is a good deal more controlled than his later output of the 1660s and 1670s and in this respect, and in terms of the measured palette, seems to be more indebted to Flemish models than to the exuberance of Mario Nuzzi.