Apples and pears in two bowls and a basket; and Pomegranates in a basket, with pears and peaches on plates and plums hanging

This pair of still lifes recalls those attributed to Blas de Ledesma, who is known to have been active in Granada. Only a handful of documents record his activities designing stucco vaults at the Alhambra and attest to his talents as a painter of grotesques and still lifes. A single still life — depicting a basket of cherries flanked on either side by bouquets of lupins and irises, now in the High Museum of Art, Atlanta (inv. no. 57.11) — is signed and unanimously accepted as autograph. Although Ledesma’s oeuvre remains a subject of debate, the numerous still lifes arranged in a similar manner to the present pair, compiled by Ramón Torres Martín in his 1978 monograph, suggest the popularity of this type. The basket of pomegranates featured here is nearly identical to one depicted in another canvas that he gives to Ledesma recorded in the Galleria Lorenzelli, Bergamo (see R. Torres Martín, Blas de Ledesma y el bodegón español, Madrid, 1978, no. 71).