Juan de Arellano

JUAN DE ARELLANO (Santorcaz, 1614-Madrid, 1676).
"Still lifes".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Authorship confirmed by the expert Don Peter Cherry.
They have frames following ancient models.
Measurements: 72 x 55,5 cm (x2); 91 x 75 cm (frames, x2).
Pair of still lifes of flowers perfectly framed within the full Spanish baroque, with a magnificent treatment of the qualities, the colors and, especially, the effective tenebrist illumination, which gives the flowers a presence and a three-dimensional aspect that reaches an illusionist level, almost trompe l'oeil. The flowers, worked in both paintings in shades of red, ochre and white, emerge from the half-light. Both pieces were painted around 1668 and their authorship has been confirmed by Peter Cherry, an expert in Baroque still life painting. Each of the pieces is numbered in the upper right area, indicating that they were part of a set of four works, only one of which is signed.

Juan de Arellano was an artist who specialized mainly in flower paintings, achieving, as we can see here, a great mastery in composing, with a contrasting palette, sensual bouquets in a language fully inscribed in the Spanish Baroque. After a first stage dedicated to religious painting, he decided to abandon the figure to specialize in the floral genre. In this sense, it is necessary to transcribe the response that the biographer and theorist. Palomino put in his mouth when asked about his almost exclusive dedication to flower painting: "Because in this I work less and earn more". Palomino also reports his possible stay in Alcalá de Henares before arriving in Madrid to work in the workshop of Juan de Solís. Arellano must have perceived the success that flower painting could have at the court, where the market of fans of this genre was largely nourished through imports. In his works we can intuit the overcoming of the tradition of Juan van der Hamen -continued by his pupil Antonio Ponce, in a more formal and rigid way-, transmuted in a direction of greater baroque complication. He received his first influences from Flemish examples, especially from Daniel Seghers, thanks to which he was able to endow his works with a meticulous and precious technique that he always kept. In addition, he copied abundantly the works of the Roman Mario Nuzzi, known as Mario dei Fiori, one of the best definers of the genre and well known in Spain. From him he took a more lively formulation in the strokes that led him in the profuse and exuberant direction already mentioned. We know that he opened a store in the center of Madrid: already in 1646 he had one in Atocha Street. It became one of the most important in the capital, where his works were known and acquired by a large number of nobles, as is shown in the abundant inventories preserved. In his workshop, in addition to flower paintings, there was room for other genres such as still lifes, portraits, landscapes, allegorical and religious themes. It is known that he collaborated with other artists who painted the figures that Arellano surrounded with his floral compositions, such as Francisco Camilo and Mateo Cerezo. Among his disciples is his son José, who repeats his father's models with a less refined technique that shows a certain dryness and a more muted chromatism. His son-in-law Bartolomé Pérez de la Dehesa, who inherited his sensual interpretation of nature and applied it to more tranquil compositions, continued his still lifes of flowers. However, in technique he is closer to Italian painters. The Prado Museum holds up to eleven canvases by Juan de Arellano. Most of them come from royal collections, and also from the legacy of Xavier Laffite and the donation of the widowed Countess of Moriles. Of the works in the Prado, Bodegón de frutas is an exception to the author's specialty, the painting of flowers.