Attributed to Gabriel de la Corte

Attributed to GABRIEL DE LA CORTE (Madrid, 1648 - 1694).
"Vase with flowers.
Oil on canvas.
With label on the back of the Board of Seizure and Protection of Artistic Heritage.
Provenance: Lázaro Galdiano Collection.
Measurements: 57 x 43 cm; 74 x 60 cm (frame).
The authorship of Gabriel de la Corte in this work is evidenced, firstly, through typological elements such as the arrangement of the vase in an opulent baroque vase. Also in the quality of it, with an overloaded composition, of great freedom in its execution and a spontaneous and vigorous brushstroke. As usual in De la Corte's paintings, this canvas offers us a large composition with a floral motif that covers practically the entire surface. On a dark background that enhances and gives luminosity to the composition, various species of flowers are joined, such as tulips, dahlias, daffodils, roses, bluebells, among others. The stems and leaves are twisted in arabesque shapes. The author creates this still life with great detail in the drawing, applying a multicolored palette in more impastoed brushstrokes in some flowers to enhance them, while the less visible ones are barely made with a fine glaze. Unlike other genre painters, Gabriel de la Corte's works are characterized by overloaded compositions, freedom of execution and his spontaneous and vigorous brushstrokes loaded with paint. His style foreshadowed later developments in the 18th century.
Baroque painter specialized in the realization of vases, he was the son of Lucas de la Corte, also a painter from Madrid, although his paternity has been the subject of debate among important scholars such as Antonio Palomino or Cean Bermúdez. During his lifetime, De la Corte's success was scarce, which led him to eke out a meager living by painting at low prices and even completing the works of other artists by inserting flowers in their works. The work presented here follows, therefore, the basic characteristics of Gabriel de La Corte, presenting a pair of paintings of flowers arranged in vases, originating an overloaded composition in which the freedom of the invoice and the spontaneous and vigorous touch of the brush loaded with matter prevail. De la Corte's style is influenced by those of Arellano and anticipates the still lifes of flowers that, later on, will be crowded with complicated compositions on tremendously elaborated cartouches. Thus, we are faced with two mature works by De la Corte, in which the vases are filled with dense and varied bouquets of brightly colored flowers, made from dense brushstrokes. Of marked verticality, these are imaginative compositions that prelude the arrival of rococo, in which symmetry is broken with and tends to horror vacui. In them, the flowers still appear full, voluminous, in all their splendor, as would be typical of the baroque (in the rococo, on the other hand, the flowers would be preferred half-open, not so full). However, the vases are placed in the strict center of the painting, contained in elaborate vases, on pedestals finished in rocaille and before a dark background on which the flowers are cut out, vividly illuminated. However, the arrangement of the flowers has already lost the strict rigor and austerity of the naturalistic baroque. From a luminous point of view, the fact that De la Corte has concentrated the light-colored flowers in a single point, thus turning the luminous flowers into chromatic highlights that stand out in the composition and attract the viewer's attention, stands out. His intuitive technique, based on the realization of works painted on wet, through which the artist intends -and achieves- to transmit the impression of a wide range of tonalities, stands out. Some important works by De la Corte are preserved in the Prado Museum, among other important institutions.