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Lot Essay
These striking paintings by Juan van der Hamen y León are fine examples of the artist’s early work and reveal the profound influence of Juan Sánchez Cotán (1560-1627), the artist who revolutionized the genre of still-life painting in Spain at the start of the seventeenth century. These compositions, with their carefully arranged elements and overhanging fruit, are characteristic of van der Hamen’s work in the early 1620s, before he started to employ the stepped stone plinths and asymmetrical formats which secured his reputation as ‘one of the most original and sophisticated still-life painters of his age' (W.B. Jordan, Spanish Still Life in the Golden Age 1600-1650, exhibition catalogue, 1985, p. 142).
Painted on an unusually small scale for the artist, these pictures share the same dimensions as the artist’s Still life with sweets and Still life with candy boxes and jars (both 30 x 68 cm.), dated to circa 1622 and now in the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid. The present canvases, which clearly date to the same period and may well have originally formed part of the same series as the Madrid pictures, include two motifs that were to become defining elements of van der Hamen’s still-life painting. The artichoke, with its split stem, appears in many of the artist’s compositions from the early 1620s and would be re-employed to great effect for commissions later in the decade, notably for his outstanding masterpiece Still life with artichokes, cherries and vase of flowers (Madrid, Naseiro collection), painted in 1627 for Diego Mexía, 1st Marqués de Leganés, van der Hamen’s most important patron whose posthumous inventory lists no fewer than eighteen pictures by the artist.
While the composition containing the artichoke from the present pair is clearly indebted to Sánchez Cotán for the inclusion of the overhanging fruit, its pendant reveals van der Hamen’s most conspicuous homage to the elder artist. The open melon, which dominates the left side of the present composition, is a direct quotation from two of Sánchez Cotán’s most celebrated pictures: Still life with quince, cabbage, melon and cucumber (c.1602; San Diego, San Diego Museum of Art; fig. 1); and Still life with game fowl (c.1603; Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago), both of which were executed shortly before the artist abandoned painting and entered the Carthusian monastery of Santa María de El Paular. As William Jordan has observed, van der Hamen evidently made a drawing of Sánchez Cotán’s open melon from either the San Diego or Chicago still life and kept it, using it as a pattern for future compositions, much in the same way that his predecessor had (ibid., p. 99).
Celebrated in his day as one of the greatest painters of his generation, van der Hamen was descended from a historic Flemish noble family. His father, Jehan van der Hamen, was a Flemish courtier who had moved from Brussels to Madrid before 1586. His mother, Dorotea Whitman Gómez de León, was half-Flemish and half-Spanish, and was similarly descended from two important noble families from Toledo. In addition to serving as unsalaried Pintor del Rey, van der Hamen was a member of the Flemish Royal Guard of Archers (Archeros del Rey), a distinguished position previously held by his father. As official guardians of the monarch, the members of this exclusive group of nobles accompanied the king in full regalia on all public and ceremonial occasions and as such, enjoyed direct access to the Palacio Real. It was in part thanks to this privileged position that van der Hamen was able to secure some of his most important commissions. Although he was a talented painter of religious subjects and an accomplished portraitist (in 1626, Cassiano dal Pozzo famously preferred van der Hamen’s portrait of the Papal Legate, Cardinal Francesco Barberini, to one by Velázquez), it was as a still-life painter that he found fame. Van der Hamen had already distinguished himself in this field by 1619, when he was commissioned to paint a still life with fruit and game for the hunting palace of El Pardo, to the north of Madrid. Though this royal commission is now lost, documents reveal that it was intended to hang alongside five other still lifes, possibly by Sánchez Cotán, for the south gallery of the newly reconstructed palace. This early exposure to Sánchez Cotán’s work must have had a formative influence on the young artist. Yet van der Hamen modified Sánchez Cotán’s style, moving beyond the Toledo painter’s astonishing realism and remarkable spatial illusionism to focus more on geometric purity and the plasticity of his forms.
It is difficult to overstate the extent to which van der Hamen’s paintings were admired during his lifetime. His still-lifes inspired early 17th-century Spanish authors to write more encomiums in prose and verse than the work of any of his contemporaries, including Diego Velázquez (J. Brown, The Golden Age of Painting in Spain, New Haven, 1991, p. 103). Poets and critics such as Lope de Vega and Francesco Pacheco hailed him as the new Apelles, whose art surpassed that of Nature and was unrivalled in his short lifetime. Indeed, when the artist died at the tragically young age of thirty five, the writer Juan Perez de Montalván lamented that 'if he were living, he would be the greatest Spaniard his art had ever known'. Van der Hamen’s pioneering work helped to establish an enduring tradition of still life painting in Spain that would extend through the following centuries, finding its culmination in the 20th century with the revolutionary works of Pablo Picasso.
Painted on an unusually small scale for the artist, these pictures share the same dimensions as the artist’s Still life with sweets and Still life with candy boxes and jars (both 30 x 68 cm.), dated to circa 1622 and now in the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid. The present canvases, which clearly date to the same period and may well have originally formed part of the same series as the Madrid pictures, include two motifs that were to become defining elements of van der Hamen’s still-life painting. The artichoke, with its split stem, appears in many of the artist’s compositions from the early 1620s and would be re-employed to great effect for commissions later in the decade, notably for his outstanding masterpiece Still life with artichokes, cherries and vase of flowers (Madrid, Naseiro collection), painted in 1627 for Diego Mexía, 1st Marqués de Leganés, van der Hamen’s most important patron whose posthumous inventory lists no fewer than eighteen pictures by the artist.
While the composition containing the artichoke from the present pair is clearly indebted to Sánchez Cotán for the inclusion of the overhanging fruit, its pendant reveals van der Hamen’s most conspicuous homage to the elder artist. The open melon, which dominates the left side of the present composition, is a direct quotation from two of Sánchez Cotán’s most celebrated pictures: Still life with quince, cabbage, melon and cucumber (c.1602; San Diego, San Diego Museum of Art; fig. 1); and Still life with game fowl (c.1603; Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago), both of which were executed shortly before the artist abandoned painting and entered the Carthusian monastery of Santa María de El Paular. As William Jordan has observed, van der Hamen evidently made a drawing of Sánchez Cotán’s open melon from either the San Diego or Chicago still life and kept it, using it as a pattern for future compositions, much in the same way that his predecessor had (ibid., p. 99).
Celebrated in his day as one of the greatest painters of his generation, van der Hamen was descended from a historic Flemish noble family. His father, Jehan van der Hamen, was a Flemish courtier who had moved from Brussels to Madrid before 1586. His mother, Dorotea Whitman Gómez de León, was half-Flemish and half-Spanish, and was similarly descended from two important noble families from Toledo. In addition to serving as unsalaried Pintor del Rey, van der Hamen was a member of the Flemish Royal Guard of Archers (Archeros del Rey), a distinguished position previously held by his father. As official guardians of the monarch, the members of this exclusive group of nobles accompanied the king in full regalia on all public and ceremonial occasions and as such, enjoyed direct access to the Palacio Real. It was in part thanks to this privileged position that van der Hamen was able to secure some of his most important commissions. Although he was a talented painter of religious subjects and an accomplished portraitist (in 1626, Cassiano dal Pozzo famously preferred van der Hamen’s portrait of the Papal Legate, Cardinal Francesco Barberini, to one by Velázquez), it was as a still-life painter that he found fame. Van der Hamen had already distinguished himself in this field by 1619, when he was commissioned to paint a still life with fruit and game for the hunting palace of El Pardo, to the north of Madrid. Though this royal commission is now lost, documents reveal that it was intended to hang alongside five other still lifes, possibly by Sánchez Cotán, for the south gallery of the newly reconstructed palace. This early exposure to Sánchez Cotán’s work must have had a formative influence on the young artist. Yet van der Hamen modified Sánchez Cotán’s style, moving beyond the Toledo painter’s astonishing realism and remarkable spatial illusionism to focus more on geometric purity and the plasticity of his forms.
It is difficult to overstate the extent to which van der Hamen’s paintings were admired during his lifetime. His still-lifes inspired early 17th-century Spanish authors to write more encomiums in prose and verse than the work of any of his contemporaries, including Diego Velázquez (J. Brown, The Golden Age of Painting in Spain, New Haven, 1991, p. 103). Poets and critics such as Lope de Vega and Francesco Pacheco hailed him as the new Apelles, whose art surpassed that of Nature and was unrivalled in his short lifetime. Indeed, when the artist died at the tragically young age of thirty five, the writer Juan Perez de Montalván lamented that 'if he were living, he would be the greatest Spaniard his art had ever known'. Van der Hamen’s pioneering work helped to establish an enduring tradition of still life painting in Spain that would extend through the following centuries, finding its culmination in the 20th century with the revolutionary works of Pablo Picasso.