Spanish school; first half of the 19th century.

Spanish school; first half of the XIX century.
"Still lifes".
Oil on canvas.
Measurements: 61 x 82 cm (x2).
Pair of nineteenth-century still lifes whose aesthetics shows the continuity and transformation of a fundamental genre in the Spanish pictorial tradition. Although produced in the 19th century, both canvases reveal a clear debt with the aesthetic models of the baroque, as much in its treatment of the light as in the theatrical disposition of the objects.
The first painting places the viewer in front of a still life of fruit arranged in an outdoor setting. Grapes, peaches and other fruits are meticulously presented; in contrast, the second canvas depicts an indoor still life, where fish, a bottle of champagne and a lobster occupy the foreground of the composition.
The still life in Spain had a particular relevance since the Golden Age, not only for its decorative value, but also for its moral and philosophical dimension. These paintings could function as memento mori, reminders of the transience of pleasures and of life itself, or as exaltations of abundance and natural order. In the 19th century, the genre remained relevant, serving both as a field for technical experimentation and as a space for recovering the classical tradition at a time when academic painting was looking to the past for legitimacy.