拍品專文
Influenced by the still life painters of Antwerp and Rome, notably Daniel Seghers (1590-1666) and Mario Nuzzi (1603-1673), Juan de Arellano became one of the finest and most important flower painters working in Spain in the seventeenth century.
Early accounts of Juan de Arellano's life report that his attempts at figure painting were modest, but his exceptional talents in still life painting became evident almost immediately. His first still lifes date from 1646. The present work, which can be dated to the mid-1660s, displays Arellano's energetic flare, in which he achieves a chromatic harmony through the use of shades of the primary colors and in which a sense of movement seems to emanate from the flowers themselves. Combined with a rich chiaroscuro, his compositions have a baroque grandeur which prompted Palomino to write of him 'None of the Spaniards surpasses him in eminence on this skill' (A. Palomino, El museo pictóroco y escala óptica. El Parnaso Espanñol pintoresco laureado, 1715/24 (Madrid, 1947 edition, p. 964).
Early accounts of Juan de Arellano's life report that his attempts at figure painting were modest, but his exceptional talents in still life painting became evident almost immediately. His first still lifes date from 1646. The present work, which can be dated to the mid-1660s, displays Arellano's energetic flare, in which he achieves a chromatic harmony through the use of shades of the primary colors and in which a sense of movement seems to emanate from the flowers themselves. Combined with a rich chiaroscuro, his compositions have a baroque grandeur which prompted Palomino to write of him 'None of the Spaniards surpasses him in eminence on this skill' (A. Palomino, El museo pictóroco y escala óptica. El Parnaso Espanñol pintoresco laureado, 1715/24 (Madrid, 1947 edition, p. 964).