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 flower painters working in Spain in the seventeenth century, and an acknowledged leader among the painters working at the court of Madrid.

Early accounts of Juan de Arellano's life report that his attempts at figure paintings were modest, but his exceptional talents in still life painting became evident almost immediately. Though his first still lifes date from 1646, the present painting can be placed towards the end of his career when he had absorbed and mastered the Flemish models of his youth as well as the more robust baroque style of Rome and Naples. By the 1660's he had developed a repertory of flowerpiece formats in which baskets constituted a major part and he elaborated and diversified this theme until his death in 1676. Arellano's paintings were executed with an energetic flare, uniting a chromatic harmony characteristically rendered in shades of the primary colors with a sense of movement seemingly eminating from the flowers themselves. Combined with a rich chiaroscuro his compositions attained 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 Español pintoresco laureado, 1715/24 ( Madrid 1947 edition, p. 964).